Reading Exodus

For the most part, when reading through the Bible, a lot of the content is enjoyable to read, especially the historical stories. However, there are areas that are difficult to get through. One of these would be the law portion of the Pentateuch, or the first five books of the Bible. Exodus continues the story from Genesis, and then marks the transition into the law of God for His people while they were in the wilderness.

Reading Exodus isn't necessarily as hard as Leviticus or Numbers, but the tail end of the book does provide some issues. However, with the narrative start, it makes those laws easier to read through, for a few reasons. While I was reading Exodus during my year reading plan, the reason that stuck out to me the most was regarding the character of Moses.

I'm not sure if the purpose of Exodus is necessarily to act as a chronicle of Moses' life, and I think it is geared more towards showing how God saved the Israelites, but I was hit with how God also saved Moses. Moses for many Jewish people is the central figure of their religion. He's the one that's their hero, the one that delivered their people, the one that is the greatest leader in their history. And there's no arguing he is definitely one of the greatest in history, but Exodus shows how he developed into that confident, fearless leader.

Moses' story starts in a time of trouble, with the Pharaoh demanding all young Hebrew males to be killed in order to keep the Israelites' population in check. However, God intervenes, and selects Moses right from birth. For some reason, I dwelt on that for a while in my reading time. Again, it shows how close God is, and how intertwined He is in our lives. He specifically chose Moses for the task of delivering His people, right from birth. He carefully guides the baby Moses in a basket through the rivers right to a specific saviour, Pharaoh's daughter. He specifically plants Moses within the palace to grow up, and develop as a man, and a person. Anyone can see that God is already clearly at work in this situation.

As a side note, one thing that really struck me as different was how Moses knew He wasn't an Egyptian, but rather a Hebrew. While a lot of cinematic and literature works play out the situation with the secret being revealed to him as an adult, which causes him to snap, and murder, the Bible doesn't necessarily state specifically how he knew. Could he have know this fact earlier in his life?

Anyways, the next few moments truly reveals how Moses really wasn't that great of a person early in His life. At least, it shows the internal struggle that was going on in his life. He goes out and murders an Egyptian, and then flees to save his own skin. Yes, God used a murderer, and a coward to save His people.

Perhaps my favourite part of Exodus is the burning bush. I heard an interpretation of the story by Rick Warren, and it really opened my eyes. God asks Moses what is in his hand, which of course was a staff. This staff represented Moses' income, his livelihood, his identity, his everything. God asked Moses to lay this all down at the feet of God, so he could turn it into something great. Still, Moses doubts, but God ensures Moses steps up and acts.

All of a sudden, with his return to Egypt, we see a courageous Moses willing to put his own life on the line to free his people. What a change!

The rest is history. Moses continues to be the vessel for God, leading His people to freedom in the wilderness, where he becomes the glorified religious leader that many know him by today.

This story really struck a chord with me. First, God can use anyone He wants to for His work. It doesn't matter what his current state is, what their job is, what their personality is like, anything and anyone can be used for God's work. Second, you don't have to be perfect to be a vessel for God. Everyone makes mistakes, and everyone has doubts, but God overpowers all of that. Finally, God truly can change lives.

Reading Genesis

My focus over the past few weeks has been reading my Bible. At the youth group I help out at, the challenge was put forth to these young teens to read the entire Bible from cover to cover by the end of the year. I love this challenge, and so I have joined the youth, and I am attempting to complete the task as well.

Currently, I am done Genesis. Now I have already read Genesis multiple times, and the whole Bible at least twice. One thing I love about this book though is that it never gets old. There are a few books that you read once, and then you never pick them up again. But I find myself drawn to continue to read the Bible over and over again simply because each time something new draws my attention.

This time, I've been drawn to the fact that God always knew what was going to happen, yet He let the characters in His story choose what they wanted to do. That may seem like a confusing statement, but breaking it down makes it much clearer.

I believe Genesis is a testament to the fact that God had, and still has, a plan for each individual, and a plan for the world as a group. Reading through each story, and how they tie in together reveals exactly how God wanted for each situation to occur, and it always happened in that way. Well, perhaps not always how He wished, but how He knew it was going to occur.

At the same time, He lets the characters in His story form their own lives. He lets them make the decisions, and He just acts as a guider, counsellor, judge, provider, and guardian. Every single major character in Genesis talked to God, found out the possibilities of either choice they would make, and then made a choice whether it be bad or good.

The reason why I think God still knew what was going to happen even if He let His creation have free will is that fact that He knew His creation so well. He knew Adam and Eve to their last bone, he knew Noah, Abraham, and Joseph down to every single hair, every single thought, every single tendency. In fact, He knew them better then they knew themselves. Because of this, He knew what they were going to choose.

Although this is a "historical" book, the lessons that can be applied in our lives today are tenfold. First, we can feel confident that everything happens to us for a reason. Everything good, and everything bad, God uses for a certain purpose. Just like how Joseph was able to say that God intended to use harm for good in his situation, we should be able to view trials and persecution in the same way. Secondly, we should feel confident in the fact that God is ultimately in control. The world is definitely a messed up place, and it is progressively getting worse, but we as Christians should be able to take solace in the fact that God has the master plan, and the final result is in His hands. Finally, we should be able to learn from the mistakes of the forefathers of our faith. Unity is key, being patient is important, and many other lessons along those lines should be understood from the stories contained in Genesis.