Heading into Exodus

Sorry it's been a few days since I posted on the readings. Life has been a little hectic the last week or so, but I'm still hanging in there. I hope you are too. But remember, if you are behind, it's not that hard to catch up because of the weekly set up with the weekend giving you time to catch up and review.

We head out of Joseph's life, leaving Genesis, and moving into Exodus.


Genesis
47 Joseph rescues Epypt
48 Joseph's sons become Jacob's
49 Jacob blesses his sons/Jacob dies
50 Joseph reminds his brothers he loves them/Joseph dies

Exodus
1 God's people become slaves in Epypt
2 introducing Moses
3 Moses is called by God (burning bush)
4 Moses is given a sign and a mouthpiece, his brother Aaron
5 Moses confronts Pharaoh, things get worse
6 God reassures His promise of deliverance
7 The plagues begin: blood
8 frogs gnats and flies o my
9 animals, boils, hail
10 locusts and darkness

Exodus 3 could possibly be in my top 10 chapters in the Bible. I remember one of my professors asking us as students to pretend we could only have 10 chapters of the Bible, and to rationalize which ones would we choose. It was a great exercise and forced us to think what times in Scripture stand out as extraordinary. This episode in Scripture is pretty spectacular, and God reveals Himself in a new way to Moses and as a result to humanity. By the way, this is one of the most studied and written about chapters in all of the Bible.

Maybe you've heard it said, but burning bushes weren't uncommon in this time and geography. What is different is that Moses pauses long enough to notice some that is ordinary (a burning bush) and common become uncommon and holy (God's presence in the ordinary).

Perhaps you've been there, on an ordinary day you see an ordinary moment become supernatural and set apart by God. 'Holy ground' moments are to be treasured. But sadly, many times they are missed because we are too busy looking or waiting for the extraordinary rather than the ordinary.

Even the plagues, believe it or not, can be attributed to natural geographical occurrences in the region of Egypt, according to many scholars. (the main exception of course, is the last plague of the firstborn death). Those in tune with the Holy Spirit today can see the unseen movements of God in and around their lives in the common things and sometimes peculiar timing of the twists and turns of life.