the book of Exodus it's the second book
of the Bible and it picks up the
storyline from the previous book Genesis
which ended with Abraham's grandson
Jacob leading his large family of 70
people down to Egypt now Jacob's 11th
son Joseph had been elevated to second
in command over Egypt and he had saved
his whole family in a famine and so
Pharaoh the king of Egypt offered the
family to come live there as a safe
haven and so eventually Jacob dies there
in Egypt and Joseph and all his brothers
due to about 400 years pass and the
story of the exodus begins now that name
refers to the event that takes place in
the first half of the book Israel's
exodus from Egypt but the book has a
second half that takes place at the foot
of Mount Sinai in this video we'll just
focus on the first half where centuries
have passed and the Israelites were
fruitful and multiplied and they filled
the land now this line is a deliberate
echo back to the blessing that God gave
all humanity back in the Garden of Eden
and it reminds us of the big biblical
story so far
humanity forfeited God's blessing
through sin and rebellion and so God
chose Abraham's family as the vehicle
through which he would restore his
blessing to all the world but the new
Pharaoh does not view Israel as a
blessing he actually thinks this growing
Israelite immigrant group is a threat to
his power and so just as in Genesis
humanity rebels against God's blessing
so here Pharaoh attempts to destroy the
source of God's blessing the Israelites
he brutally enslaves them in forced
labor and then he orders that all the
Israelite boys be drowned in the Nile
River now Pharaoh he is the worst
character in the Bible so far his
kingdom epitomizes humanity's rebellion
against God Pharaoh has so redefined
good and evil according to his own
interest that even the murder of
innocent children has become good to him
and so Egypt has become worse than
Babylon from the book of Genesis and so
now Israel cries out for help against
this new Babylon and God responds God
first turns Pharaoh's evil upside down
as an Israelite mother throws her boy
into the Nile River but in a basket
and so we float safely right down into
Pharaoh's own family he's named Moses
and he grows up to eventually become the
man that God will use to defeat
Pharaoh's evil in the famous story of
the burning bush God appears to Moses
and Commission's him to go to Pharaoh
and order him to release the Israelites
and God says that he knows Pharaoh will
resist and so he will bring his judgment
on Egypt in the form of plagues then God
also says that he will harden Pharaoh's
heart and so we're introduced into the
next main part of the story the
confrontation between God and Pharaoh
now what does this mean that God says it
will harden Pharaoh's heart it's super
important to read this section of the
story really closely and in sequence in
Moses and Pharaoh's first encounter
we're told simply that Pharaoh's heart
grew hard there's no implication that
God did anything and so in response God
sends the first set of five plagues each
one confronting Pharaoh and one of his
Egyptian gods and each time Moses offers
a chance for Pharaoh to humble himself
and to let the Israelites go but after
each plague were told that Pharaoh
either hardened his heart or that his
heart grew hard he's doing this of his
own will and so eventually it's with the
second set of five plagues that we begin
to hear how God hardened Pharaoh's heart
so the point of the story seems to be
this even though God knew that Pharaoh
would resist his will God still offered
him all of these chances to do the right
thing but eventually Pharaoh's evil
reaches a point of no return
I mean even his own advisors think that
he has lost his mind and it's at that
point that God takes over and bends
Pharaoh's evil towards his own
redemptive purposes God lures Pharaoh
into his own destruction as he saves his
people which is what happens next with
the final plague it's the night of
Passover and God turns the tables on
Farah just as he killed the sons of the
Israelites so God will kill the
firstborn in Egypt with a final plague
but unlike Pharaoh God provides a means
of escape through the blood of the Lamb
and hear the story stops and introduces
us in
detailed to the annual Israelite ritual
of Passover on the night before Israel
left Egypt they sacrificed a young
spotless lamb and painted his blood on
the doorframe of their house and when
the divine plague came over Egypt the
house is covered with the blood of the
Lamb were passed over and the son spared
and so every year since the Israelites
have reenacted that night to remember
and to celebrate God's justice and his
mercy but Pharaoh because of his pride
and rebellion he loses his own son and
he's compelled to finally let the
Israelites go free and so the Israelite
slaves make their exodus from Egypt but
no sooner did they leave that Pharaoh
changes his mind and he gathers his army
and chases after the Israelites for a
final showdown as the Israelites passed
through the waters of the sea safely
Pharaoh charges towards his own
destruction the Exodus story concludes
with the first song of praise in the
Bible it's called the song of the sea
and the final line declares that the
Lord reigns as king and then the song
retells in poetry with the story of
God's kingdom is all about it's about
how God is on a mission to confront evil
in his world and to redeem those who are
enslaved to evil God is going to bring
his people into the promised land where
his divine presence will live among them
this story is what it looks like when
God becomes king over his people so
after the Israelites sing their song the
story takes a sharp turn the Israelites
they're trekking through the wilderness
on their way to Mount Sinai and they're
hungry they're thirsty and they start
criticizing Moses and God for even
rescuing them they say they long for the
good old days in Egypt it means crazy
so God graciously provides food and
water for Israel in the wilderness but
these stories they cast a dark shadow
and we begin to wonder could it be that
Israel's heart is just as hard as
Pharaohs we shall see but for now that's
the first half of the book of Exodus