I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, and lots of really good food!  This Sunday, we finished the first major section of Exodus and point forward to our Advent series on Joy.  Fittingly, we arrive at the institution of the first Passover meal, which could be the original Thanksgiving meal. And central to…

Marketers tell us that the before and after photos are among the most powerful tools to motivate change and sell products.  We love a dramatic before and after photo.  And in Exodus 2 through 11, we see a dramatic before and after.  We begin with an overconfident, impulsive Moses who dramatically acts and drastically fails, which leads to a…

As we journey through Exodus, we come to the Ten Plagues.  The plagues run from the stomach-turning discomfort of spoiled water, to the cringe-inducing invasion of frogs to the exasperating annoyance of the lice and flies, to the economically damaging animal sickness, the personally debilitating pandemic of boils, to the environmentally disastrous hail and locusts,…

As we move through Exodus, we have come to the point where Moses must confront his fears. He claims he is afraid that neither the people nor Pharaoh will listen to him, and he will fail.  But is that what he is really afraid of? Or is there something deeper?   If I asked you: What are you…

As we move into the final section of the introduction to Exodus, it might be helpful to get a basic map of where we are and where God wants us to go.   There are two basic movements from 4:18-7:7. First, we have Moses’s arrival back in Egypt and his first encounter with Pharaoh (4:18-5:21). This…

The character of Moses lives in the memory of both Jewish and Christian believers as a towering figure. He is remembered as a mighty leader, a great teacher, and a colossal man.  But it is important to remember where he started. In chapters 3 and 4, we encounter a Moses who is deeply insecure, uncertain…

The stories in the early part of Exodus speak to us in our times of greatest and most urgent need. They speak to us when we are tempted to say: God has forsaken…God has forgotten…Why me? Why? Why now? This doesn’t make sense… Exodus 1-6 quietly reminds us that these feelings are not true. In fact,…

As we continue in the book of Exodus, Moses is a fugitive on the run, a man of ambition whose life has descended into obscurity. As chapter three opens, he is leading his father-in-law’s flock through a desolate, rocky wilderness.  And then, something happens.  He sees something. Something unexpected…something he couldn’t anticipate, plan, or control. …

Last week we looked at the big picture of Exodus. This week, we dive into chapters 1 and 2.  Chapters 1 and 2  are a remarkable story. It is a story that delights, showing how the weak and powerless defy the wicked.It is a story that horrifies, showing terrible suffering and portraying unspeakable evil.It is a story that…