Dr. John Oswalt, Session 1, Exodus 1-2

[Music] [Applause] this is dr. John Oswalt in his teaching on the book of Exodus this is session number one Exodus chapters 1 & 2 Exodus Exodus is a Greek word meaning the way out X is out and hot Oz is way the way out now if I were to say the way out of what what would your answer be the way out of Egypt yes but there is one problem with that and that problem is they're out of Egypt by chapter 15 they're out of the bondage they have experienced their deliverance and they're out and on their way to the promised land so we asked ourselves the way out way out of what and what is it that comes next in chapters 16 through 24 well it is a revelation in chapter 16 to 18 it's a revelation of God's providence God's caring for them they have seen a God of power in his deliverance from Egypt but they really it appears don't know him very well and so in those chapters 16 through 18 we have a revelation of God's providence and then what comes next in chapters 19 through 24 the giving of the Covenant and in the Covenant God is revealing his character he's revealing the creation order upon which all life depends they are learning who God is in this covenant relationship God keeps saying to them you must be holy be I am holy now again we tend to have a pretty warped idea of holiness as I've mentioned to you before most of us think that holiness is a little old lady with a flat black hat and long sleeves and long hems and a sweet smile and a wicked umbrella and so when we hear you must be holy for I am holy that's what we think of but that's not what God is talking about at all he's saying the way you treat your slaves is a mark of your holiness he's saying the way you treat your animals is a mark of your holiness the way you treat your neighbor is a mark of your holiness and we ask ourselves why would those things be a mark of holiness because it's a mark of God's character and so in these chapters we're discovering that they not only need to be delivered from physical bondage they need to be delivered from spiritual darkness they don't know who God is and so we see the God of Providence we see the God of principles but the book still in over yet what more could there be they're out of Egypt they have a new understanding of who God is and what he's like what more could there be well there are sixteen chapters more and what are those sixteen chapters the sixteen chapters are 16 of the most boring chapters in the old Bible you have 5 chapters where God says do it this way in this way in this way in this way in this way and this way and then after a little break you have 5 more chapters that say they did it that way I'm that way in that way in that way what's going on here what's going on is God wants to come home why do we have two almost identical descriptions of the tabernacle because it's that important to God it's that important that he now has the chance to come home to come down off the mountain and live in the middle of a camp the way out of bondage yes but as real as human bondage and suffering is that's not our deepest human problem the way out of spiritual darkness yes how desperately we need to know God and who he is and what he's like but what's our real human problem our real human problem is we are separated from the source of our life like a plant pull up out of the ground it's not gonna survive very long in terms of what it was intended to be and so the ultimate problem is the problem of alienation the way out so this book in many ways is the paradigm I saw cartoon while ago the boy said dad what's a parrot in my dad said well son a paradigm is a paradigm and the son said you don't know either do you what's a paradigm a paradigms a model a standard model and Exodus is the standard model for salvation if you want to understand the biblical teaching on salvation Exodus is the place to begin just as Genesis explains to us the nature of the human problem and gives us the basic outlines of how that problem is to be solved Exodus gives us the human need and how it is that God intends to solve that need so exodus is the way out and the outline that you have there gives this in a little more detail and you'll notice on the outline the prominence of the word revelation ten times in the book between chapter 7 and chapter 14 you will find the phrase then you or they will know that I am Yahweh 10 times you get the idea that maybe God has something in mind at the heart at the heart of all salvation is to know him as he really is now again we've talked about this before but let me remind you whenever you run into Lord in your Bible with small caps not this way but this way that is the divine name we tend to read this as it is in our English Bibles then you will know that I am the Lord and think oops yeah then we'll know you DeVoss but it means so so so much more than that and we'll be talking about that especially next week because the name the name is I am and we'll be talking not only next week but throughout the study about what it means to know the I am what it means to be and again personally acquainted with we've talked about this before and we'll talk about it again to know in the Bible is not merely intellectual knowledge but it is intellectual knowledge on the basis of personal experience I know who Obama is I do not know Obama I can tell you I know Karen Kennedy Oswalt not as well as I intend to but I've been working on it for a year or two now God wants to be known and he wants to be known in the fullness of his character and his reality and that's what this book is about salvation is about that personal acquaintance with God in the fullness of his reality that has some very very profound effects concerning human bondage and the suffering that humans impose on others we don't minimize this at all but we don't stop there salvation must involve the whole person it must involve all of us and so in that regard this book is about knowing God we begin with the need for deliverance in chapter 1 chapter 2 the preparation of the deliverer chapters 3 and 4 the call of the deliverer chapters 5 through 12 36 the events of deliverance the crossing of the sea 1237 to the end of chapter 14 and then we conclude with one of the great hymns of the Bible chapter 15 actually verses 1 to 21 the song of the sea The Book of Revelation refers to this the song of Moses and it's coupled with the song of the Lamb there in the book of Revelation from chapter 15 verse 21 we move into the second section the evidence of divine providence the revelation that God cares yes yes he is all-powerful yes the gods of this world can't hold a candle to him but does he care about us or are we just sort of the pawns on his chess board no he cared water food protection and the last one is the most fascinating to me chapter 18 organization Moses father-in-law comes along and says man you've got a problem you've got a whole bunch of people here all hanging on you you need to get organized here and that's part of God's providence we move then to the revelation of his principles and that's in chapters 19 to 24 you have an introduction to the Covenant in chapter 19 then the presentation of the terms of the Covenant in chapters 22 23 and then the sealing of the Covenant SCAL ing when the people are invited to participate now in this covenant and then chapters 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 I said five chapters at seven chapters on the tabernacle and then in chapters 35 to 40 35 36 37 38 39 40 six chapters we do it all again just changing the verb tenses from you shall to he did but part of the importance of that duplication is what falls in between the Golden Calf chapters 32 33 and 34 and that's very significant for understanding what this section is really talking to us about God is up there on the mountain with Moses supplying their need for his immediate presence but down in the valley they say God doesn't know our needs God doesn't care about us we don't know what happened to that fella Moses we need God make us a god Aaron so Aaron does what he learned in seminary in Egypt he makes a god what a tragic tragic failure in place of the tabernacle in all its gorgeous beauty its variety and its complexity what does he make a Kathie probably the thing was a bull but the Bible is mocking when it calls it a golden Kathie that's what happens when we supply our own needs so they did it right and in the end of the book if you have your Bible there let's look at it it is truly a climactic moment chapter 40 verse 34 then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle now of course I said this is the paradigm this is the model the New Testament gives us the fulfillment of the model when the Holy Spirit takes up residence in his tabernacle that's where the whole thing is headed okay questions on the outline or what else I've said here hang on to that outline please I'll be trying to refer to it as we go along and the study guides will also try to follow that as well any questions as dr. ken law who said to me years ago if they don't have any questions after you've lectured you know one of two things it was either so clear there are no possible questions remaining or much more likely it was so confusing nobody knows what to ask yes yes I had I had one of the funniest things of my whole life up here yesterday on an email this person wrote to me saying he had read two great books in his life one was by CS Lewis and the other was by John Oswald that's not good that's not good at all okay let's turn to chapters 1 and 2 chapter 1 the need for deliverance I'm not going to go over this background because our time is gone and going but it's there for you if you want to look at it as we go along verses 1 to 7 of chapter 1 presuppose something what is it that they presuppose Genisys exactly who are these people who is this Israel and and who's this Jacob and who what's Jacob got to do with Israel and Reuben Simeon hood who are those people yes this book is built upon the assumption of Genesis now what does that tell us about the Bible's understanding of human experience and I could say I should say human divine experience the fact that we need Genesis to understand Exodus what does that tell us about the Bible's understanding of human divine experience it is sequential it is in fact historical if you're going to understand who God is and what he's doing you've got to understand that in the context of time I dare to say that's unique to biblical religion Oh with the gods every experience is new it doesn't matter what happened yesterday it certainly doesn't matter what happens tomorrow you're having a mystical experience with him right now and it's totally totally disconnected from everything not the Bible do you want to know who God is you have to see what he has done with real human beings in time and space in sequence we matter to him that is a profoundly important point no other religious book no other religious book reveals its deity in the context of connected human experience because humans really don't count in the world of the gods we're just here to feed them alright let's move on but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful they multiplied greatly increased in numbers became so numerous the land was filled with them how does that relate to Genesis 12:1 and following exactly this was the third point in the Covenant you are going to have children more than the stars of the heavens or the sand of the seashore and God is keeping his promise now there again you see if you're really going to understand that statement you've got to understand it in the context of Genesis otherwise you just say oh well they were really fertile that's interesting God is keeping his promise to them even though they're far away from the promised land all right let's move on now again I'm pushing hard trying to get through here too but if you've got a question don't hesitate to ask your friends will be interested ok 1 8 to 14 according to verse 10 the Egyptians were afraid of two things come we must deal shrewdly with them or they'll become even more numerous and if war breaks out we'll join our enemies fight against us and leave the country what are the two things the Egyptians are afraid of what's it say they'll join the enemy and when they beat us they'll get out of here now I said I wasn't going to talk about background just a word remember that probably the reason that Joseph was able to rise to the position he was was because for about a 200 year period Semites were ruling the northern part of Egypt they were playing Egyptian but they were really Semitic in 1550 the native Egyptians rose up and throughout the Semites back into the land of Canaan so why is this pharaoh why is he afraid that the Hebrews might join their enemies the same bunch hey those people are Semites and suppose those other Semites come back in here again they'll join them and we'll be in big big trouble but suppose they do win the battle and leave the land what's the problem with that no free labor now these Pharaohs between 1550 and 1200 were basically military dictators and their major concern was Canaan because as we've talked a little bit before Egypt is well defended on the north you've got the OVA sea on the west the Sahara on the east the wilderness between the Red Sea and Egypt on the south again you've got desert running right down on either side of the river and you've got four serious falls down there that people have to get out of their boats and portage around and while they're portaging you Egyptians are killing them the big hole is right there again and again Israel has been conquered through the Sinai Peninsula and so these Pharaohs decided sort of like Russia decided in 1945 twice now these rotten Germans have taken a run at us and there's been nothing between them and us but Poland and that's not much so so from now on the border of Russia is going to be west of Berlin a lot of slowing down a little bit same thing here the border of Egypt is going to be as far up the Canaanite coast as we can possibly push but there were not only military dictators they were also people with you may have heard this an edifice complex all of them built things to satisfy their egos bigger and bigger and bigger if you happen to have seen Albert Speers drawings for what Berlin was going to look like after Hitler won the war it's just unbelievable buildings just totally out of scale with anything around them to match the madman's towering ego same thing here so number one we don't want to let these people join our enemies and open up this door again and number two we don't want to let them go because then we won't have anybody to help build these huge monuments to our egos so then speaking of problems what is the basic the most basic problem the Hebrews have bondage they are enslaved by a people who are superior to them how does that relate to the promises of Genesis what are the three promises that God made to Abraham number one land number two children and number three all of the nations will be blessed through you those are three promises that you ought to sort of get fixed in your mind the three promises made to Abraham well if they're in bondage in Egypt they're not in the promised land so that's a problem 115 222 who is named in verse 15 and who isn't Ferro is not named but who is named the midwives the most powerful man in the world is anonymous and these two little ladies I say little maybe they were big I don't know but these two ladies who from the world's point of view are pretty much insignificant we know their names to all eternity we know their names that's significant does God know your name if he does then you will live forever if God doesn't know your name you're in big trouble big big trouble probably they are representative of a bunch more you couldn't name them all so in order to name some you pick two who will be representative probably that's what's going on and the midwives that Pharaoh said okay okay somehow or other we thought we would slow down their birth processes by imposing this terrific bondage on them but they still keep producing children so we're going to have to do something else here and that something else is we're going to kill all the boy babies when they're born but the midwives refused to obey why did they refuse to obey the most powerful man in the world [Music] yeah what does the text say specifically they feared God now I've talked in the past about the fear of the Lord can anybody tell me what is the fear of the Lord it is all respect obedience it is a recognition that there is a God to whom I am accountable it is not terror it is not where is he gonna hit me next absolutely not the fear of the Lord is clean I love the psalm that says the secrets of the Lord are for them that fear him another version of that verse is the friendship of the Lord is for them that fear him so we're not talking about some kind of abject terror where we're afraid that if we look at God cross-eyed he's gonna whack us that's not it at all it is a way of living built on the realization there is a god to whom I am responsible know I've used them as an illustration in a sermon on the fear of the Lord yeah let's look at Psalm 34 verse 11 come my children listen to me I'll teach you the fear of the Lord whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days keep your tongue from evil your lips from telling lies turn from evil and do good seek peace and pursue it verse 6 says this poor man called and the Lord heard him he saved him out of all his this version says troubles out of all his fears if you fear the Lord you don't have to fear anything else so these two women were not afraid of Pharaoh because they had a more important fear and that was the fear of the Lord if our lives are built on the fear of the Lord we can live with confidence in every situation that we might face so what did God do for the midwives back to Exodus he blessed them and gave them children isn't that interesting they protected the children of the ladies of Israel and God gave them children in return God has a way of doing that when we are more concerned about meeting the needs of others God has a way of meeting our needs but when we focus on our needs it seems like it puts a stopper in God's conduit of blessing but when we forget about that focus on the needs of others the conduit is open and God can pour out his blessings upon us supplying our needs in his way and in his time absolutely yes exactly exactly yeah off with your head yeah yes I think you're right as a group yeah yeah yeah yeah I'm I'll have to put to death a whole bunch of people and that might have repercussions I think I think you're right I think that has a lot of Merit mm-hmm yeah yeah this is what Jesus says don't be afraid of him who can kill your body be afraid of them who can kill your body and send you to hell namely God exactly yes there's great wisdom in obeying the Lord Psalm 56 is another that is so significant on these lines the superscription says it was written while David was in prison with the Philistines he had pretended to be crazy and they threw him in jail to talk about it and he's not sure what's going to come out of this a very very significant song verse three when I am afraid I put my trust in you in God whose word I praise in God I trust and I'm not afraid what can mere mortals do to me and then down in verse 10 and 11 in God whose word I praise in the Lord whose word I praise in God I trust and am not afraid what can mere human beings do to me in the one verse he calls us meat flesh what can flesh do to me in the second one he calls us a Dom which is related to the ground what can a piece of meat do to me what can a cloud of dust do to me I trust the Lord and that's these ladies so according to verse 22 of chapter one what's the second problem the first problem is they are enslaved out of the promised land what does verse 22 say right no more boy children girl children are okay no more boys now what's the significance of that precisely we're going to put this ethnic group out of existence the girls will marry Egyptian boys and their children will thus be Egyptians and we'll keep some of this Hebrew energy going we won't kill everybody but we will destroy this ethnic group how does that relate to the promise that's right you will be a kingdom a kingdom of priests not if all those boys are killed so the human problem that we have is now let me ask you what question does this raise about God can God keep his promises so this problem is not merely a human problem it is a divine problem and that's true of sin sin is God's problem as well as ours because he made us for fellowship he made us for heaven and if the devil is able to persist and destroy us in hell forever God has been defeated so sin is not merely a human problem sin is a problem for God as well someone says well God doesn't need us then that's certainly true but God wants us so the need for deliverance is a human divine problem all right let's push on to chapter 2 why do you think they put the kid in the basket in the river now again I've said this before I say it again there are lots of questions the Bible doesn't answer for us so we can I can't stand before you and say I have the answer and all your answers are wrong no I don't but there are many situations like this where the Bible invites us into the story to think about it and wonder and that's entirely legitimate what do you think why why did they do that all right all right the Nile was the mother for the Egyptians so there's some sort of logic in putting this baby on the breast of the mother not that Jacque Abed and amrum necessarily believed that but simply in terms of Egypt yeah I think that's a very real possibility what else I I have often wondered that if they didn't sit down and say you know you know what that princess and her servants they come down every morning to take their baths right over there what if we put yes yes yes they are truly entrusting the child to the Providence of God they were supposed to kill the baby and they refused to do that at the same time they understood if they held on to him for themselves he would be killed and so they really are trusting this child to the Providence of God not so much to the Providence of the Nile as they are to the God who owns the Nile yes yes God did that and that's a that comes down here just in another set of questions yeah yeah yeah see the the princess could say that's a brew baby kill him yeah so again it is they they have no assurance how this thing's gonna turn out why did Pharaoh's daughter defy her father's command and now look at the text look at the text the baby cried yep yeah if you don't believe there are differences between men and women come see me afterwards and one of them is right there the kid is crying oh he's crying her heart is moved with compassion and the compassion of a woman's heart is greater than a father's command I can't absolutely say but I'm I'm all but certain that that's exactly right this is the one place and I so I think that's exactly the point that if he hadn't been crying maybe he wouldn't have survived but because he was crying her heart was moved and once he was in her arms that was the end of the story yes that's a possibility to that she was already opposed to this idea yes I think very much so now then the arrangements in chapters in verses seven eight and nine one of those tell us about God and His Providence perfect timing yes yes yes yes protector and deliverer yes Jacque Abed and by the way Jacque Abed means yahweh is glorious Jacque Abed gave up her baby and God gave her baby back to her she got paid for doing what her body desperately needed to do and that's like god that's like God now verse 10 says that when he was weaned they gave her back to gave him back to the princess and he became her son why would God choose to have Moses raised by the oppressors he had to know the culture speak their language mm-hmm okay yeah Egyptian pharaohs were expected to prove their fertility by fathering as many children as physically possible some of the pharaohs are reported to have had eighty and ninety children they had a special festival every seven years to re-up the Pharaohs fertility early version of Viagra I think well what are you gonna do with all those royal children you populated the civil service and the military and the priesthood with them so a son of Pharaoh would have been trained in civil administration he would have been trained in military operations he would have been trained in all of the arts of the Egyptians again that's so like God now what does this tell us about God anyway that he would use the oppressors to train the deliverer sense of humor yes he plans ahead he did it with Paul he is very economical nothing is wasted if will allow it every thing that comes into our lives can be used by God for his good purposes yes doesn't choose the Abel he enables the chosen yes yes gathered the pieces that are left over let nothing be wasted yes yes and we can look back on our lives and see moments of sorrow and futility where it seemed that all of that was just a bye road but keep your eyes open God is able to use anything if we'll let it chapter 2 verses 11 to 15 what qualities of Moses come out of this incident compassion yes he sees and injustice being done and he's moved what else he's a soldier love for his own people confidence how about impetuous he knew when to run what was his idea of delivering his people brute force whose brute force Moses brute force done without cost to himself done in secret done one by one God had different plans yeah yeah yeah yeah the Jesuit said give us a boy till he's seven and we have him forever we don't know how long it took to wean the child maybe a long long time but yes yes he did not forget what his real heritage was so what does verse 14 tell us about the Hebrews were they grateful no were they responsive to what Moses was trying to do no no who made you ruler and judge over us are you thinking of killing me like you killed the Egyptian as I read that I thought oh brother that's them and it's going to be them for the next 40 years yeah I don't I think it's a good question I don't think they necessarily were but again it's a what right of you to tell me what to do verses 16 to 22 especially verse 21 what does this tell us about Moses at this point in his life I'd be interested at some translations some different translations of verse 21 as to the verb about Moses I've got the NIV here it says Moses agreed to stay anybody got a different one Moses was content to stay he was willing to dwell he accepted the invitation eventually decided yes all of those are trying to convey that idea that Moses was settling down in this situation I tried and I failed what else could a guy do the guy offered me a job he offered me his daughter why not pardon well if he had a real concern for his people he could have said I'm sorry I've got to find some way to get back to Egypt I don't know how it'll work but I've got to get back somehow for the sake of my people oh yes oh yes it's just I don't see that God saying anything here it's Oh unquestionably unquestionably but I think he was at work in spite of Moses we may say it took him 40 years to get to the point where his work was finished and I wouldn't dispute that but simply I don't know I mean I suppose he had said Oh God I'm just so broken over my peoples bondage Here I am in freedom and Midian and my people are suffering making bricks God is there some way you could use me no no he was content to stay right where he was I I was gonna say I haven't the slightest idea I've got a slight idea I think it was very much a kind of historical thing we'll talk next week about God identifying himself as the god of your father's and I I think that it was like if I may dare say it being as I'm a United Methodist like a lot of United Methodists grandpa used to go to this church that's why I'm here that's my guess is that it was a kind of a historical memory and that yes yes but I doubt that it was very much more than that yeah yeah and again again it is God never loses anything now see where I would draw a line some people would say yes so God intended him to be in the desert in order to prepare him I'm not willing to go there I'm I'm more inclined to say he spent that forty years in the desert because he didn't want to go back to Egypt but God was able to use even that for his good purposes that's the kind of God we serve even even if we should be out of his will that doesn't mean God can't use that time for his good purposes plans of God already had don't know don't know but I'm confident I'm confident that Moses did not ask God while he was in Egypt God how do you want to use me with my training my background to deliver my people I'm confident he did not ask that question he said I'm gonna save my people one at a time and it's not gonna hurt me and then he discovers it is gonna hurt him he's out of there oh yes yes yes oh absolutely not we'll talk about that next week at length he's determined not to go back those people are gonna try to kill me what do you think God and but yes by the time it's over Jethro I need to go back to Egypt okay we need to wrap up here I want to look at the last two verses of chapter 2 which are very important in this whole account during that long this is verses 23 and 24 during that long period the king of Egypt died the Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God now God what heard their groaning and he what remembered his covenant with Abraham with Isaac and Jacob so God looked on the Israelites and acknowledged them this says he was concerned about them I I don't think this is the best translation God knew them God didn't try to deny who they were to him and who he was to them now those verbs are so significant God heard and saw what does that tell us about God he's aware he is sensitive he remembered was that say what does he remember about these people do you think he hadn't forgotten them yeah he remembered his covenant he is faithful he keeps his promises I can't leave these people in Egypt I made some promises back there 3 400 years ago man God that's 400 years ago yes it is but I made promises couldn't get Moses attention and he acknowledged them he knew them what does that tell us omniscient somebody comes to me and says hey you know Joe Blow he was drunk he wrecked his car he's in jail do you know him Joe Blow no not me I never heard of him in fact he's my next-door neighbor what's God saying he's not ashamed to call them his own he has compassion he cares so thanks for your patience what is the cause of deliverance God's character and nature doesn't matter about how well Moses has been trained doesn't matter how appropriate his character in nature might be for the task that's eventually going to be given him if God was not the kind of God he is the Hebrew people would still be in Egypt the problem is they work oh no I think I think we're going to see in these next chapters we're gonna see the Hebrews telling Moses leave us alone we like making bricks but I understand what you're saying and certainly it's true there has to be this underlying memory who is the god of our fathers what has he been like so that ultimately yes you're right there has to be some sort of a platform that ultimately faith can be created on but it was a long slow all to get that platform reconstructed yes exactly exactly yeah yeah yeah I think I think that's exactly right I think I I guess next time about the probable dates of the Exodus I tend to take the early date and if that's so then Moses birth would be very near the beginning of this new kingdom the Pharaoh who knew not Joseph and so yes yes they've been very comfortable they hadn't that fell then they need to go home until things turn bad and then then they weren't able to go home oh I do yes I think again I think I think I think their religion was very very nominal I think if you had said to them who do you worship they would have said oh we worship the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob who's that we don't know but we worship it again I've met some of those people okay friends thanks so much for your faithfulness we'll try to do better next time and stick with the the hour thank you thanks for being here look forward to seeing you as you're able through the rest of the spring [Music] [Applause] this is dr. John Oswalt in his teaching on the book of Exodus this is session number one Exodus chapters 1 & 2 [Music]

Channel: ted hildebrandt

Views: 1,546

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Exodus, Exodus 1-2, John Oswalt, Francis Asbury Society, biblicalelearning.org, Ted Hildebrandt

Id: DtPnGizyI4Y

Length: 69min 22sec (4162 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 22 2018