Exodus
Exodus
Chelsea Mosher: [00:00:00] Hey everyone, you're listening to God's Whole Story. This year we're taking a book by book journey throughout scripture to see how God uses the story of scripture to accomplish his purposes. If you enjoy the content, we would love to partner with you. Look at the show notes to see how you can do that and we hope you enjoy this episode.
Hey everyone, today we are in Exodus, uh, studying the Bible book by book. God's whole story. And I've got to say, I really love the book of Exodus. It's a great book. It's a good book. And I love, I love the Dreamworks movie. I love all the pop culture that goes into Exodus. Some of it, not all of it.
Ryan Zook: There's like the Gods and Kings movies.
Kind of weird.
Chelsea Mosher: Oh, I've never seen that one.
Ryan Zook: Oh, it's kind of weird.
Chelsea Mosher: Okay.
Ryan Zook: It's like the Noah movie with the rock
Chelsea Mosher: like a three out of five or
Chris Lautsbaugh: just, just to be clear, we're not. Backing all the theology in no, no. No, I
Chelsea Mosher: just like it
Ryan Zook: My favorite thing is considering because Christian Bale plays Moses in [00:01:00] the the gods and kings ones.
Okay, Moses is Batman. That's pretty cool
Chelsea Mosher: That is a weird Connection, maybe
Chris Lautsbaugh: maybe that's what the you know, the the The pillar of fire looked like it was the bat signal. I mean, it kind of worked that way, right? Hey, yeah.
Chelsea Mosher: Can you imagine the bat signal leading them by night?
Chris Lautsbaugh: Well, this is taking an unexpected turn.
This is named Aaron or Alfred.
Chelsea Mosher: Okay. We're in Exodus. Um, something I want to be clear about, because we didn't talk about with Genesis is that Moses is the author of the Pentateuch, which is the first five books of the Bible. Exodus is the second book here. And. Moses is writing it, of course, with the influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit, um, and I mean, probably God face to face, honestly.
Um, and what I was thinking of as I was reading through it is that this is a pretty crazy story. Um, you've got a villain. You've got [00:02:00] plagues, you've got miracles, parting of the Red Sea, you've got a people who's rebellious, you have all sorts of things happening in Exodus. It's a really great action packed story, um, and it's easy to get lost in the anecdotal parts of it and split it up into Sunday school lessons.
But the whole purpose of this book is a God who's making himself known, um, to a people who are going to learn. Who he is, whether they like it or not, honestly. Um, so Moses is writing it, but God is the main character here. Um, despite what DreamWorks and no wonder they made movies out of it. It has all the elements.
Honestly, it does. Um, It's not a bad point, but Exodus is a building block for the rest of the Bible. And that's another point I wanted to make. This is a story that the Bible is constantly going back to. It's always like, look what I did for you in Egypt. Look what I [00:03:00] did for you in Egypt. Look how I brought you out of slavery.
God is constantly pointing his people back to it. And It's a foreshadowing. This Exodus from Egypt is a foreshadowing of what happens for us as believers. What, what Jesus does is bringing us out of slavery to sin into freedom. Um, what about you guys? What, what sticks out to you when you read Exodus? You know,
Ryan Zook: it's funny you talk about it being like a, like a building block or like a foundational book to the rest of the books.
Uh, my wife and I are doing a daily podcast and are, um, right now at the time of this recording, we're in acts and it's interesting to me so far. Um, like every. Sermon from an apostle? Yeah. Like it's like, uh, Peter does it. Stephen does it. Uh, Paul does it. Like it's so common to who they are at the time of Jesus, um, that like, obviously like it's a very important story that those early church leaders were making sure they queued up so that people could understand.
And also [00:04:00] always they're talking about how, you That was the beginning of the story, but they're still currently living out the story in the book of Acts. Like they literally always go from essentially Abraham, but they focus a lot on Exodus and then they come all the way up until the book of Acts and what was happening in that day and what God is continuing to do.
And so to me, it's compelling to be like, okay, yeah, like it was their story. It was the apostle story and today it's our story. So it's just as important to us as it was to everybody throughout Christian history because it's, it's. It's foundational to what we believe and how we understand who God is and how we understand how relational God is.
It's so important. Uh, so all that to say, it's a good book to read.
Chelsea Mosher: Yeah. If you haven't studied Exodus, study Exodus.
Chris Lautsbaugh: Definitely God's favorite history lesson. Yeah. I mean, this is the historical event that's, I mean, if you think this is repeated more than creation, it's repeated more than like all these other, like everything we went through in Genesis.
Yeah. Remember the exodus, remember the exodus, remember the exodus. I am the God who delivered you from Egypt. Like those are things that we see through throughout the [00:05:00] rest of God's whole story. So yeah, this is, it's pretty, pretty important.
Chelsea Mosher: Um, another thing about Exodus is we now see playing out a continuation of God's promise to Abraham.
God promised Abraham that he would make him into a great nation, that he would bless those that bless you and bless him and curse those who curse you. And what's interesting is that we're seeing live what happens when a nation curses the nation of Israel. Pharaoh is the first instance now here of Um, oppression of Israel, uh, as a nation, and it's, it's not good to be Pharaoh.
It's not a character you want to be in this story. Um, because we see what happens when, when God's people are messed with, he's, he sticks to his promises. Um, and he's about to put some curses, AKA plagues on Egypt, um, in a very real way [00:06:00] and almost in a humiliating way, because. We won't have to, you don't have to go through all the plagues because you can read that on your own.
But each of these plagues is in a personal attack on gods of Egyptians, which is super interesting. It's guys just like, again, making himself known. I am the God. I am who I am. He says to Moses, um, and I am a God that's holy. I am the God that is greater than all these other false gods that you've been surrounded by as far as Israel goes.
And Egypt is going to find out in this book just who God is. Uh, yeah.
Chris Lautsbaugh: You know, when you think about becoming a great nation. Like the way that God did this though wouldn't necessarily be the way that we would think God's gonna make them a great nation we left off the story in Genesis that You know Joseph was was in Pharaoh's court.
His family got rescued from the famine and then we just we have a 430 year gap [00:07:00] Where this is when? Israel's becoming a great nation and they're becoming a great nation in slavery. It's not like the glory days We're getting great and mighty No, they're becoming a great nation while they're serving a under a pagan government serving as slaves and then they become a threat Because they've become so numerous.
That's why Pharaoh decides to kind of unleash his anger on them So it Sometimes the way that God does these things fulfills the promises isn't necessarily the way that we would, or even the way that a movie script would do it. But that's what God was doing during these 430 years leading towards the fulfillment of his promise to Abraham.
Ryan Zook: I want, I want to call out like in the context of those 430 years, like a key passage to understanding Exodus. Obviously there's plenty of them. But, uh, Genesis. 15 starting in verse 13, the Lord said to Abram, so this is Abraham. This is like way before the Lord said to Abram, no, for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there and they will be [00:08:00] afflicted for 400 years, but I will bring judgment on that nation that they serve and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
Like that also happens in the book of Exodus down to the last detail. Like they actually come out of. Uh, the land of Egypt, the people, the people of Egypt are so afraid of the power that they have with their God, that they like willingly hand over all their stuff to the Israelites and they just walk out of that joint with all the like gold and silver and possessions.
Like it's pretty incredible. And you wouldn't
Chelsea Mosher: bring Egyptians with them. Yeah.
Ryan Zook: Yeah. Egyptians go with them, which, which again, Uh, looking at the book of acts, I've been studying acts like God's heart for Gentiles is not something that developed in the New Testament. It's something that always existed and people who are obedient to God are always welcome into God's family.
And it is, it's important. I think that's, I think it's a detail that so many people miss. Like you've probably heard the story of Exodus. Many times, if you've been around church for a long time, and I bet you may not have [00:09:00] heard that actually Egyptians left
Chelsea Mosher: with them. Yeah. I mean, well, Moses, his family was Egyptian.
He married an Egyptian, a daughter of a priest. Right. Um, and his kids were Egyptian then. So. At least they were walking out with him. And then the Bible says that others were too. Others were convinced that the God of Israel was the true God. And they were like, I'm not sticking around here with all these different flags and they walked out.
Ryan Zook: Which also means that the, the blood on the doorposts, like the, the, Sign that protected them from the Passover, essentially
Chris Lautsbaugh: from the final play. Yeah.
Ryan Zook: From the final plague. That means I think we can assume that some Egyptians actually followed through with that as well.
Chelsea Mosher: That offer was open to Egyptians.
They were
Ryan Zook: protected as well. Like the blood of the lamb, like offered right relationship with God to more than just the Hebrew people.
Chris Lautsbaugh: Obviously there's some serious foreshadowing in that just a little bit.
Chelsea Mosher: Well, let's talk about that. Like, how do we see God's character [00:10:00] and the foreshadowing of what will be our salvation.
In this book, like what, what jumps out to you first?
Chris Lautsbaugh: I mean, well, we just mentioned the, the Passover foreshadowing that it was, they were, the final plague was that they would lose the firstborn son unless they, uh, slaughtered a lamb and put the blood of the lamb over their doorpost. And when the spirit of death came, uh, they would, it would pass over.
That's where we get Passover. Uh, it would pass over those with the blood on the doorpost. And just the symbolism there is. It's, it's obvious that, uh, the blood of Jesus as the lamb of God, uh, is, saves people from death, saves people from the wrath of God, uh, because their sins are forgiven and they're trusting in God for their salvation.
So that's obvious. Um, there's, there's a ton of parallels in this book and things that, that point forward. Yeah. Um, the, the going through the red sea is something that's mentioned often,
Chelsea Mosher: right? Um, I've heard it said like a very [00:11:00] first instance of baptism and turning into a new community of like minded people.
Um, and then Moses, the parallels between Moses and Jesus are so strong, just like it was with Joseph. Um, so.
Chris Lautsbaugh: And there's also even some looking back because the purpose of them going out of Egypt into the promised land was so they could live with God and dwell with him and worship with him. With that has echoes of the garden of Eden, the way that the people were originally created to dwell with God.
So we, we've got things that are pointing forward and we've got things that are looking back.
Chelsea Mosher: Yeah. Um, uh, if you want to kind of study the parallels between Moses and Jesus, the book of Matthew Makes a lot of strong parallels, making Moses or making Jesus really like a Moses figure, pointing back to who Moses was.
Um, so it's, that's super interesting to study and go through, uh, but yeah, the Passover for sure is the first instance of God providing [00:12:00] a substitute for the whole nation. We saw that with Abraham, of course, and Isaac, um, but God provided a substitute and we can look ahead and now we have the blood covering us.
And that's Jesus's blood, but it's really cool. Um, okay. So some other things I wanted to look at here was something that I was thinking through when I was looking at this. It's the first few chapters of Exodus. It's really interesting to me how women play a really, really big part in this. And I never stuck out to me in that way.
And I don't, I'm not just saying that cause I'm a woman. Um, but you think about, okay, so you first have these midwives who, uh, lie to protect. These babies that are born to Israelites. Um, and they are part of God's, this is the first instance of like God's redemption plan going into place. Um, you have Miriam saving [00:13:00] Moses, you have Pharaoh's daughter, who probably was not part of God's knowingly part of God's plan and purpose, saving Moses, bringing him out of the water.
Um, These like three instances of women being part of God's plan of redemption is so interesting to me because, uh, I think about how notoriously People will say that the Bible does not value women, and we see over and over again, and we'll keep seeing it throughout scripture that that's just not true, that God uses women in a way that brings glory to Him, and for really important purposes, they're doing really important things, and actually a lot of those things revolve around caring for a child.
Which is super interesting, like, because they were brave and because they had a heart for what was happening to whatever child they were taking care of, um, God's plan of redemption came about for the nation of Israel.
Chris Lautsbaugh: And that's [00:14:00] often happening in cultures that don't value women. Yeah. So God's valuing women in the midst of cultures that don't value them, which is just kind of like, Yeah, you can't, that wouldn't have happened normally in many of these situations.
So that's pretty cool.
Ryan Zook: Yeah. It's also kind of a case, I like putting this out when I can, it would not have been a popular thing to do. That's kind of what we're talking about already. So if you wanted to make up a fake religion and represent like a God that wasn't real and appeal to people, you would not include those kind of details because that would be kind of a tough pill to swallow.
Like wait, like, You know, at the time of Genesis, the time of Exodus, like not a lot of men would have been lining up to be like, yeah, let's follow this God that values women, because most gods did not value women. And that continued for a long time. And Christian history for a long time has been known for valuing women.
And so I always like to point that out because I think it's a pretty strong case for like, Hey, like the Bible actually includes a lot [00:15:00] of the unpopular details that would have made. Selling the religion. You can't see my air quotes, but like would have actually made it pretty difficult. And that's a case for the authenticity of what we believe, not a case against it.
Chelsea Mosher: The same goes to the rest of the book of Exodus because it's not that the Israelites are not in a great light in the book of Exodus. They're actually pretty terrible. Pretty much the worst. They're complaining. They're disobedient. They're worshiping false gods. Um, they're, Making golden calves and doing all sorts of weird things.
And just like, at one point the Lord is like, Hey, you can just stay here.
Ryan Zook: They're actually making the golden calves. Out of the gold that the Egyptians gave to them because of God's gracious provision for his people. So they're using the things that God's supernaturally provided for them to care for them, to actually create a false idol, to worship, to go against the God that brought them out and cared for them.
Chris Lautsbaugh: It's literally. Days or weeks at the most [00:16:00] after they went through the Red Sea.
Ryan Zook: Yeah.
Chris Lautsbaugh: After they saw, like, the cloud descend upon Mount Sinai. And if you read the text carefully, it sounds like they would have heard the voice of God speaking to Moses too. Or at least, at minimum, thunder and lightning as that was happening.
Mm hmm. And then as Moses is up on Sinai getting the Ten Commandments and a bunch of this stuff. They're down there having a party, making a golden calf, and the way that they
Ryan Zook: did things
Chris Lautsbaugh: back then, it probably wasn't just like, you know, just jumping around and dancing around, it probably was a pretty foul, sick
Chelsea Mosher: party in some of the things that they were doing.
Chris Lautsbaugh: Yeah, uh, But, you know what? As we said, The Bible wasn't trying to sell itself by, you know, throwing in things about women that was unpopular. The Bible also doesn't try to sell itself by skipping the bad parts.
Chelsea Mosher: Right, exactly. It's, that's what makes it a story that's worth reading and discerning. Like, if you are not sure if the [00:17:00] Bible is true, read it and like, and see if, see what happens.
Um, Yeah. I love the Bible. I don't know if I've said that before on this podcast, but I really do. Um, thanks
Ryan Zook: for clearing that up
Chris Lautsbaugh: for us. That's our, that's our takeaway. Read the Bible. Read the Bible, please. Or at least listen to podcasts that read the Bible. Yes.
Chelsea Mosher: Oh man. I do want to touch on one, um, difficult thing that people wrestle through in this book, and that is God hardened Pharaoh's heart.
What do you guys think? Have with that phrase, what have you heard, what have you learned, what have you taught when it comes to this phrase where God has hardened fair, his heart?
Ryan Zook: I, I think the most compelling way that I understand it, and I, this is one of those topics where I have, like, I don't think I'm gonna die on this hill.
Um, I, I think God, I believe God has sovereign control over all things. And so if God wants to harden someone's heart, it's certainly within his right. Like he's [00:18:00] certainly allowed to do that. Like, who am I to tell God like you, you got to stop that. Like, I'm not putting myself in that position. So, but I think the most compelling way to understand this is often when the Bible describes somebody as a God hardening their heart or God handing them over to Satan or, um, being.
Um, was that filled with an evil spirit that happened to Saul? Um, a lot of times you can clearly see from even the most of the narratives that lead up to these kinds of instances, that these were people who were evil anyway. So these are people who had chosen already the path of wickedness and rejection of God.
And one of the ways that God's. Hardens people's hearts is he actually gives them exactly what they want, which is always bad, always. Uh, and so I would say my way of understanding it. And again, definitely open for conversation. If you understand it differently, like tell us, like email [00:19:00] us, uh, leave a comment, whatever, just let us know what you think and how you see this.
Um, Pharaoh was already not great. Pharaoh had multiple opportunities to turn from his own evil desires. Um, And when God hardened his heart, God was one sovereignly in control. And obviously the Exodus story was bound to happen. It is definitely part of his redemptive plan. Um, but two, I don't, I don't think it was a significant step for Pharaoh to embrace evil.
I think he already had on his own volition and God just handed him over. over. So there's, there's no question. The text says that God hardened his heart, but it's also pretty clear from the text that his heart was already hardened. It
Chris Lautsbaugh: says several times that Pharaoh hardened his heart, his own heart. Yeah.
Um, before it actually says that God did it and it, as you're talking there, Ryan, it does remind me like even when we get to the New Testament concept about the wrath of God, uh, in Romans chapter one, the way that that wrath is described is that God gives them up. He gives them over to [00:20:00] basically their desires, the consequences of their actions.
So it's, it's not this. Active thing that God is like forcing on people, but he's allowing them to go their own way and experience the Consequences of what they want and what they have decided I've
Ryan Zook: described it. I don't know if this is helpful or not It's been helpful to me like God is relational and he desires us to have right relationship with him.
I don't think he's like Moping around hoping we like eventually give him attention I don't think of him that way but like God wants us to be in his presence. He enjoys us Bob For extra credit. That's why there's a tabernacle set up in Exodus actually, so that he can dwell with his people. And so to some degree, like God pulls us along like a wagon up a hill, but the more and more we reject him, the more and more we make it clear that we actually don't desire a relationship with him at all.
Eventually he does let go of the wagon and you see it fly down the hill. Because we don't naturally drift towards God. We naturally drift away from God. And you see that with Pharaoh, like Pharaoh becomes crazier and crazier [00:21:00] to the point that he's like, fine. Like my first born can, he saw every single plague come to pass.
Like, like everything that Moses said would happen happened. So when Moses goes before Pharaoh and he's like, Hey, the first born are going to die, like really should turn like he's not going to turn like his die is cast or whatever. I don't, I don't even know if I said that the right way, but he made his decision and he made his choice.
Chelsea Mosher: Yeah. I, and I, I think what you said, Two at the beginning, is this a reminder that this book is about a God who's making himself known to his people. And we love the relational aspect of God. We love the God of mercy. We love the God who rescues his people. All that is so true and so valuable, but we can't have that God without a God of sovereignty and a God who is able to do whatever he wants.
And actually, I don't want a God. That can't do whatever he wants.
Ryan Zook: A God that does whatever we think he should do is actually pretty terrifying. I mean, that's making a God in your own image. [00:22:00] Yup. They did
Chris Lautsbaugh: make a movie about that one. Uh huh. Back to the movie theme.
Chelsea Mosher: We always come back. Okay. Um, Exodus does not stop at Exodus 15 or wherever we're talking about of them going through the Red Sea.
It goes in through building the Tabernacle and the Ten Commandments and so many different things. So don't think that the story stops here. That's probably where we're going to stop this podcast because we need to wrap things up. Um, but I do want to read real quickly, Exodus 33. There's this point in Exodus where, um, uh, God wants the people to leave Mount Sinai and, uh, Moses is afraid that God is not going to go with him.
Um, it says in Exodus 33, 12, Moses said to the Lord, See, you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, I know you by name, and you also have found favor in my sight. Now, therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.
[00:23:00] Consider too that this nation is your people. God says my presence will go with you and I'll give you rest. And Moses said to God, if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here or how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight? I and your people, is it not in your going with us so that we are distinct I and your people from every other people on the face of the earth.
And we'll see how God's presence goes with them. Through the wilderness and all sorts of things. Um, but every time I think that Moses is a little bit unrelatable because he's such a great leader and does all these amazing things, I think about this. And everything that makes Moses a great man and a great character in the Bible is because he wants the Lord's presence more than anything else.
He doesn't want to go anywhere without it. And I think that just could be a very apical prayer for all of us today. So uh, Exodus sets up the next book, Leviticus, uh, we're going to find out how a holy God can dwell amongst a sinful people and we'll see you next week. [00:24:00] Bye.
