April 15, 2018: Day 1 – Exodus 1

We ended our last challenge with Genesis and the incredible story of Joseph and his brothers and how they were all able to make it to Egypt and as a result the people and the nation of Israel was saved.  I was somewhat convicted today in our young couples Sunday School  class in the study that we are going over.  We are going through Experiencing God and it reminded me today that the story of Joseph is not really about Joseph.  The story of Moses that we are going to be seeing in Exodus, really isn’t about Moses.  As a pastor there is a part of me that wants to make it about these incredible protagonists because they shine bright in Scripture.

But the more I focus on these human protagonists the less God is revealed and the less it becomes about God and the more it becomes about us.  If Joseph had not been the one who continued God’s plan in Genesis, God would have found someone else.  If Moses had not carried out God’s plans, and he does it kicking and screaming as we see later, God’s plans would have still been carried out, but by someone else.  We never, every should think that the plans of God absolutely depend upon us.  They do not.  God is able to bring about all things through God’s means.  Look at Mary and how a child was conceived in her.  God did not need a man, God did not even need a woman, but he chose to use a woman who eventually gave up her will and her desires for that of her Lord.  

As we make our way through Exodus we are going to see incredible people of God, but we should never think that God’s plans were reliant upon these people or else it would not have happened.  God chose these people, but he could have just as easily chosen someone else and God’s plans would not have varied.  

As we begin Exodus we see the generation of Joseph and all of his brothers pass away.  As a result the protection that they provided also passes away and a new king, a new Pharaoh comes around who was threatened by the numbers of the Israelites.  They had truly becomes, as God had promised Abraham, more than the stars of the sky.  As a result Pharaoh commands that all male Hebrew children be killed.  The midwives had different plans, but the command still stands.  The stage is set for God to work through Moses.