Exodus 1
Exodus 1
I was re-reading Harry Potter recently, and I noticed that in every book she gives a summary of the last. Which made sense as she was writing them because you forgot in the meantime as you waited for the next book to come out. Now, if you're a Millennial or older you understand, the anticipation of waiting for the next chapter, the next book, the next episode. This is how the book of Exodus starts out - it’s reminding us who came to Egypt. Now, if you had just read the book of Genesis you’d know exactly why and who of the Israelites had come to Egypt. But as the Exodus happened 430 years after Israel’s arrival to Egypt, they might have forgotten too.
Here is what’s interesting about the first chapter of Exodus, it gives us a summary of what happened and how it went from welcoming Israel to oppressing Israel, to a story of two midwives. Now, the Pharaoh feared the growing number of Israelites in Egypt and as we read had ordered all sons of the Hebrews to be thrown into the Nile, but two midwives disobeyed Pharaoh because of their fear of God.
Here is what I want us to focus on - God always, always, always delivers those who trust in him. He loves his people, Peter says that, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). God saw the obedience of the midwives and he heard the cries of his oppressed people in Egypt. Exodus is just the foreshadowing of what is to come - God will deliver us from ourselves, from the sin that grips us and suffocates us. It is King Jesus that will reign and it is him who will redeem us. According to Google, exodus means - a mass departure of people, especially emigrants. Oh I love this, because Jesus tells us this in not our home, this is a foreign land we are meant to sojourn and he is leading us to His Kingdom. Would we follow? Would we trust that God is not silent, he is not deaf, but he is moving, even if it takes him 430 years to bring us out and back into his arms because it is for our utmost good and his utmost glory to do so.
