Day 30 – Exodus 1-3

Talking Points

• Exodus reveals one of the most remembered acts of God’s salvation. Over and over throughout the rest of Scripture, God’s people will be told, even commanded by Him to remember the Exodus event.
• Time moves on. Joseph dies and the Israelites multiply greatly in Egypt — so much so that they become a great threat to the new king. He enslaves them and forces them into hard labor. They increase still. He orders the midwives to kill all the newborn males.
• Moses is spared and lives despite the command. His mother places him in a “basket.” It is the same Hebrew word used for “ark” in Genesis. Awesomely, God allows his mother to be reunited with and nurse Moses — and to be paid for it! Moses is then raised in Pharaoh’s house.
• Now grown, Moses sees an Egyptian mistreating a Hebrew. In a rage, he defends the Hebrew and kills the Egyptian. Moses flees to Midian in great fear. There, he marries and works 40 years as a shepherd.
• The Israelites labor has continued to increase, and they cry out to God for help — for deliverance. God hears their cries, and more than that, He cares. He miraculously calls and prepares Moses for the great mission of delivering His people.
• It is impossible to move through this account and not see the character of God. From His name “I AM” meaning “the Self-Existent One,” to His care and great grace shown to His people, we see that we serve a mighty God!

Thoughts

Why do we care so much about what people think? Why are we slaves to the perceptions of others (some we do not even like?!), worrying about who we offend or who lends us their approval? Why do we tie ourselves to a treadmill, striving to succeed in the court of public opinion?

Almost unnoticed, we see the needed lesson from the Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1:17. What is that lesson? Our consideration of God should exceed our consideration of men. Simply, we should seek to please Him before all others. He is our Creator, our Savior, our Lord. His opinion should weigh heavily through the days of our lives, not out of duty, but out of respect. And, not only out of respect, but out of deep love!

In the New Testament, blown away by the truth of a risen Savior, Peter and John were found in a similar situation. Under the threat of death, they confidently spout to the very men who killed Jesus, “We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29) How could we not hold the same perspective? Blown away by a Savior who actually calls us “friend,” may we seek to please Him far beyond anyone or anything else!