The Word
« Previous EntriesThoughts on Exodus 16-17: How Not To Follow Directions
Thursday, August 16th, 2007These chapters are frustrating to read. If you haven't read them, I suggest read them now before continuing on here.
Ok, so you'd think that after seeing God miraculously deliver them, and then following around a PILLAR OF FIRE, you'd take God seriously, and you'd take His servant seriously. But God and Moses speak, and they […]
Thoughts from Exodus 15: Parted, Bitter, and Sweet Waters
Wednesday, August 15th, 2007Right before chapter 15 starts, we had been left with the image of dead Egyptian bodies washed up onto the shore of the Red Sea, signalling that the Israelites were finally and truly free. Here at the waters, Moses (perhaps) writes and leads the whole congregation in a song proclaiming the strength and love of […]
Thoughts from Exodus 14: Only to be silent
Sunday, August 5th, 2007Exodus 14 returns back to the narrative that involves Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Once Israel had departed, they seem to come to grips with their total loss of slaves and slave-labor. Seriously, we've got to imagine the scene.
You're a rich person. In Egypt, that pretty much meant you weren't a slave. You wake up. […]
Thoughts on Exodus 13: A Redeemed People
Tuesday, July 24th, 2007The people have been led out of Egypt by their God forcing their slave-holders to release them. Sitting just outside of Egypt, God speaks to them, giving them a way to live together that will physically remind their hearts of this exact place, where they started. There are two main things that stand out to […]
Thoughts on Exodus 12: Passover and Death
Thursday, July 5th, 2007What really stood out to me about this chapter was the way it was tuned to its audience. If the book of Exodus is the Israelite's Revolutionary War, then this chapter is its Declaration of Independence. I've never been trained as a Jew, (though I happen to be 1/8 ethnically!) but if I read this with […]
Thoughts on Exodus 11: Why the firstborn?
Sunday, July 1st, 2007It took me a while to think through the tenth plague and why God would bring such pain upon the Egyptians. I've explored several areas, and I think together they do start to make sense. But it must be said, before we start to ask such questions, that the topic is a tragedy. Indeed a […]
Thoughts on Exodus 10: Locust and Darkness
Tuesday, June 19th, 2007"No one who has ever seen the locust at work accuses the Biblical account of hyperbole." linkIn Genesis 8, locust flood through all of Egypt, essentially destroying all plant life in Egypt, including the crops that Pharaoh had thought would still be their salvation after the hail. Exodus describes it as, "there remained nothing green […]
Thoughts from Exodus 9: Hail-fire
Tuesday, June 5th, 2007In Exodus 9, the plagues increase in severity. No more mere annoyances. While the other plagues were hard, such as water being scarce, or frogs, or gnats, these next plagues are starting to truly impair life in Egypt to the point of true hunger, and not even being able to live. Before we get started, though, […]
Thoughts from Exodus 8b: Foundations Shake
Tuesday, March 6th, 2007The first nine plagues are divided into triplets. Three rounds of "Go to Pharaoh in the morning", "Go warn Pharaoh", and then a third plague with no warning.
The third (of the ten) plague came with no warning — gnats appeared on everything. Even Pharaoh's spiritual advisors came to him and said, "This is the Finger of God" […]
Thoughts from Exodus 7b-8a: Shaming the Gods
Friday, February 23rd, 2007Plagues one and two. The Nile and frogs. Anqet was the goddess of fertility and the Nile – their source of life and nourishment. In turning the life-giving waters to blood (their symbol of death), all hope in this goddess was shattered. She was clearly no more powerful than the God of Israel, and couldn't protect […]
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