Sermon Tone Analysis

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Introduction
Beginning a new series in the book of Exodus, we are going to look at the first 15 chapters.
Exodus, the second book of the Bible is part of a much bigger narrative called the Pentateuch.
Which includes Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
See each of these books as a chapter in the overall story.
Exodus is a book that involves movement.
Firstly, movement of the Israelites from Egypt to Mount Sinai.
Secondly, the movement of God, who takes up residence in the very midst of the Israelite camp.
As we are going to see in this series, the coming together of God and the Israelites at Mount Sinai is highly significant, but often overlooked.
So Why Exodus:
Exodus contributes in a very significant way to our understanding of God’s redemptive plan for all humanity.
We see several themes:
Redemption
Reconciliation
God’s Presence
God keeping His Promises.
Exodus is all about God making Himself known to others, it provides proof of God’s existence through supernatural events.
Exodus presupposes that anyone reading it already knows the contents of Genesis.
Which means to give context today we are going to spend much of our time in Genesis instead of Exodus.
We have to stop here for a few minutes in order to grab context.
If you have never read Genesis you would already be confused and not able to understand Exodus.
So lets go into Genesis and highlight a few things.
In the Beginning
Genesis gives us the story of God creating the world, and specifically God creating humanity to live in the world.
Humanity lived in perfect harmony with creation, and in God perfect presence.
That’s the first two chapters of the story, then it all falls apart.
Adam and Eve have one rule in the garden, don’t eat from the tree at the centre of the garden.
But the serpent in the story, which represents evil, deceives Eve and both Adam and Eve eat what God told them not to.
This opens their eyes to have knowledge, the knowledge of good and evil.
This knowledge reveals things to them, it reveals that they are naked, which brings the first time in the world that humanity felt shame.
Paradise Lost
So God puts clothes on Adam and Eve, and punishes all three parties.
Banished from Paradise
God is Absent
After this entire narrative, God goes missing for awhile, until he resurfaces and speaks to a guy named Noah.
Noah builds and arc and saves humanity from being completely destroyed.
God sent the flood to wipe out evil from the word, because things had gotten so bad.
The key piece to notice in Genesis is Gods absence among the people.
We see God interact with individuals, but not the people.
He is no longer present, like He was in the garden.
Up to this point God has done nothing to redeem humanity from the fall.
He has been absent.
A key transition happens when a new character is introduced into the narrative.
A guy named Abram.
God makes a promise to Abram that changes everything.
The entire course of humanity begins to be altered.
God’s Promise to Abram
God says:
I am going to undue/unwind, sin, death, destruction, despair.
I will make all things new again
This plan will have flesh on it, being a man born from a woman.
This plan, the promise is going to come through this nation that God is going to make through Abram and Sarai.
God is starting His plan to redeem humanity, to deal with sin so humanity can be back in His presence.
Oh, did I mention that this begins with a really old man, with a really old wife who is barren.
So, God’s plan is to make a great nation, using an old man with a wife who can’t get pregnant.
Abram Struggles with Doubt
The story goes on and Abram still has no children, so he begins to have doubts.
God promises Abram a son, it is through this son that God will fulfill his promise to Abram, who a few chapters from now will be called Abraham.
Chapter 15 reveals a lot about God’s promise, and many don’t notice everything God says within this promise.
If we read further in chapter 15 God reveals something to Abram.
God Shows Abram Egypt
God shows Abram that his plan is not going to always take the shape of things being perfect with his descendants.
We need to understand two main points in this narrative:
God is working on a good plan.
That plan, built on his promises rarely plays out like we think it’s going to.
So Abraham dies and his son Isaac continues the family line.
All the way to a guy named Joseph, who become the second in command in Egypt.
Abraham’s offspring prosper during the times of Joseph and it seems like the plan is coming together.
This is where our text picks up, showing us in the first 7 verses how God’s people are multiplying.
They are becoming powerful and great.
The promise is coming to life.
But something changes.....leadership.
God’s plan of redemption has begun, but it doesn’t always play out the way we assume it will.
God’s people are now living in slavery, being oppressed.
Not the picture they probably had in mind.
It’s interesting though:
God told Abram about Egypt in chapter 15 of Genesis.
Yet we seemed surprised about how things play out.
But God always keeps His promises!
So lets did in to this text in Exodus:
Interpretive Insights
At the onset of Exodus it’s important to notice that God does not dwell with the Israelites, and their experience of life becomes exceptionally harsh when a new pharaoh instigates a program of slavery in order to restrict their growth.
In Genesis the motif of numerical growth appears repeatedly in the divine promises made to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
So you have to see the onset of Exodus as a sign of God’s divine blessing.
Notice that Exodus never identifies the Egyptian rulers by name, yet in this story two women, the midwives are named.
This is always important when reading the story.
When people are named, they are important to understanding the message.
In Exodus the pharaohs are portrayed as anti-God figures.
So the people are living in slavery being oppressed by this anti-God figure the pharaoh
The Egyptians can’t seem to stop the growth of God’s people so Pharaoh comes up with an aggressive plan.
Lets kill all the first born boys.
He give this job to the midwives.
These women show incredible faith in God.
Don’t miss the reason, because they fear God.
This doesn’t mean they were afraid of God, it means they had a deep understanding and reverence for God.
They knew and trusted in God’s plan of redemption.
God rewards them for standing up to Pharaoh by giving them families.
This is a common theme of reward in the Old Testament.
There is an important message in this text and it revolves around the two named midwives.
God wants all of us as Christians to know when to take a stand, to not just fall into sin because we are being pressured or oppressed.
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