Exodus and the Law

Years later this son Isaac had his own son named Jacob—his name was later changed to Israel— meaning “struggler with God”. The Hebrews would then be called the people of Israel after Jacob. Jacob had twelve sons. One of his sons, named Joseph, ended up living in Egypt. (Joseph’s story is an interesting one for another time…) Joseph invited his family to join him to escape a horrible famine that covered all the land. While living in Egypt, the people of Israel grew into a large nation. After Joseph died, the King of Egypt named Pharaoh, feared Israel because of their great numbers. He treated them horribly and made Israel his slaves. Their slavery lasted 400 years. But God promised he would bless his people…

Deliverance and the Instructions

(Story from Genesis 37-50, Exodus 1-2, 7-12, 19-20)

God inspired a man named Moses to rescue the Israelites from slavery. He sent Moses to warn Pharaoh that terrible things would happen to the Egyptians if they didn’t release God’s people. Pharaoh was arrogant and didn’t listen, so God sent a series of horrible plagues to punish the Egyptians, but these plagues did not affect the Israelites.

God turned water to blood, filled the nation with frogs, gnats and flies, killed livestock, covered people in boils, destroyed the land with hail and locusts, and brought great darkness over the land.

In spite of these horrific events, Pharaoh would not let the Israelites go. So God sent one more plague…a plague that would take the life of every firstborn person and animal in Egypt. But God provided a way for the firstborn of Israel to be spared.

He instructed them to take a first-born male lamb without defect, and sacrifice it to him without breaking any of its bones. Then, they were to take the blood from the lamb and put it on the doorposts of their homes. So the people of Israel did what God told them to do.

At midnight God sent the death angel through Egypt taking the life of all the firstborn, but passing over the homes that had blood on their doorposts. The Egyptians wept over this tragedy and begged the Israelites to leave, releasing them from their slavery. And now Israel, a large nation of over two million people, set out to return to the land God promised to Abraham.

But Pharaoh wanted revenge—he sent his armies after Israel to catch them and kill them. When the Israelites approached the Red Sea they thought they were trapped by the waters and would be caught by the Egyptians. But God split the waters so that the Israelites could cross the river on dry ground.

When Pharaoh’s armies tried to cross behind them, God brought a huge wind that blew the waters back over them. The Egyptian Army was completely wiped out!

Two months after leaving Egypt, the Israelites set up camp at the bottom of Mount Sinai. God descended onto the mountain in fire and a thick cloud of smoke covered the mountain. God called Moses into his presence on the top of the mountain. There, God spoke to him saying, “Tell my people this, ‘You saw how I carried you on eagles wings and rescued you from Egypt. Now if you obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my treasured people—a kingdom of priests—set apart to represent me.”

When Moses came down the mountain he told the people what God said.

They all agreed, “We will do everything that God asks us to do. No really, we will follow all the commands.”

After that God gave Moses instructions on how the people could return to following his ways and live in freedom, a life lived close to God and under his protection. We call these instructions the Ten Commandments, which were God’s basic rules for life…

“I am your God who rescued you from slavery in Egypt.

Put me above everything else. Do not make idols or worship other things.

Do not misuse or disrespect my name.

Remember the Sabbath, a day set aside each week to rest and worship me.

Honor your parents. Don’t murder or steal or lie.

Do not sleep with any one but your husband or wife—be faithful.

Don’t lust after what others have—be satisfied with what I give you.”

God gave Moses more instructions, called laws, to give to Israel. These laws gave specific details about things like…

How to treat neighbors and enemies, how to handle conflicts, what is fair punishment, when to work and rest, when to celebrate and worship, and what offerings are acceptable to God.

But the people did not want to live within God’s boundaries and rebelled again, calling these instructions a new kind of slavery. Even those who tried to obey these rules found they could not keep them perfectly.

Because God always does what is good, right and perfect, he could not overlook their sins and the ultimate punishment for sin was death. A life must be given to pay for each person’s disobedience. But God loved his people, so he provided a way for them to substitute the life of an innocent animal in place of their own.

People would bring pure animals to God, asking him to transfer their sins to the helpless animal. The animal was killed and its blood was given in place of the guilty person.

This system of sacrifice continued for hundreds of years. Sacrifices for sins had to be given day after day, year after year. And God accepted this, but only as a symbol of what was to come. He was preparing a final sacrifice that would pay for the world’s sins once and for all.

The Kings and Prophets

(Story from Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 2 Samuel, 2 Kings, Prophecies from 2 Samuel 7; Isaiah 7, 9, 40, 53, 61; Psalm 22; Micah 5; Zachariah 12)

After wandering the desert for forty years, God led the people of Israel to recapture the Promised Land from their enemies. God gave them many victories in battle, and completely honored his promises to them—but the people rejected him and worshipped false gods. This false worship led them into many other sins.

Because of their sin and disobedience, God removed his protection and allowed them to be overpowered and punished by foreign nations. When the people suffered they would come back to God and beg for his help and forgiveness. God once again forgave them and sent leaders, called judges, to lead them in defeating their enemies. (These are not like judges we have today, but more like generals). Battle after battle, Israel conquered their enemies at every border. In victory the people would worship God, but soon after that the people turned away from God again and lived their own way.

Unfortunately, this became a pattern from generation to generation… the people of Israel would come to God and worship him when they needed help, but when things were going well, they returned to worshipping other things. This was a time where everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

Since kings ruled other nations, the people of Israel complained to God saying, “We want a human king that we can see to rule over us.” God gave the people what they wanted and allowed them to be ruled by a succession of human kings that ultimately rebelled against God and his authority. Because of their rebellion, God removed his protection from Israel and allowed other nations to come in and conquer them. The Israelites were forced out of the Promised Land and many were taken away to be slaves once again.

During the time of these kings, God sent prophets to be his messengers. God spoke through the prophets, calling people to return to his ways and follow his commandments. The prophets warned Israel of what would happen if they continued to rebel against God. Prophets also foretold of a new covenant God would make with his people. They pointed people to a coming Messiah, an eternal king who would fulfill this covenant, save them and rule forever. God gave the prophets visions of what the Messiah would be like when he came.

Prophets like Isaiah foretold that…

…a virgin would give birth to him in Bethlehem.

…he would be from the line of King David, (their greatest King) who was a descendent of Abraham.

…he would do no wrong, living a life without sin.

…he would be beaten, killed and buried in a rich man’s tomb.

…his life would be made an offering for our sin.

…he would establish a kingdom like no other Israel had ever known.

…he would fulfill every promise God had made to Abraham, Isaac and their descendants.

…God will lay the punishment and guilt for all of our sins on him. His life will be made an offering for us.

…because of him, many will be made right with God.

Despite the warnings of the prophets, the people of Israel stopped listening to God, and God did not speak to humans again for 400 hundred years…

(Today’s post is from: The Storyformed Way is a derivative of The Story of God © Copyright 2003-2006 Michael Novelli & Caesar Kalinowski, all rights reserved. This derivative was created and distributed with permission. You are free to use, remix, and build upon this work non-commercially if you attribute Soma Communities. For details, see creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/)