Sermon Tone Analysis

Have you ever watched a film, or read a book, and enjoyed it so much, that you’ve read it again?

If it’s a good book, then often it will seem to be different the second time.

For example, if you reread Lord of the Rings, knowing who will be crowned King in book three, it changes how you view the story in the rest of the book.

On the other hand, reread a whodunit, knowing who the murderer is, and a whole lot of stuff that didn’t have much significance first time around, suddenly becomes really important.

So when we read the Old Testament, it’s important that we read it, knowing what the ending is.

We are not in a synagogue, and we are not Jews.

We /know/ what happens at the end, and therefore a whole lot of stuff that perhaps didn’t have much significance for the Jews, should suddenly becomes really important.

So with that in mind, let’s recap the book of Genesis.

Genesis starts with God speaking the world into being, and setting man as the pinnacle of His creation.

There is no sin in the world, there is no death, and just one rule - that neither Adam nor Eve will eat from the tree of the knowledge of good or evil.

But they did of course, because as Genesis 3:5 tells us, they wanted to be like God.

As the story progresses, through the promises God makes to Noah, and to the story of the tower of Babel.

We’ll pause here briefly at the end of [[chapter 11|Bible: Gen 11]], because here it looks as though that things have come to a sticky end.

We read of the tower of Babel, where men, seeking to make a name for themselves had opposed God and been banished.

Then we get that long list starting in [[verse 10|Bible: Gen 11:10]] of all those names, which we tend to skip over and ignore.

If we do, we miss the point!

The list of names seems boring, because nothing happens!

Well, that precisely is the point - nothing happens.

Following the banishment from Babel, it seems as though God has left the scene, and that is the end of the story.

Eleven short chapters, and God’s dealings with men is at an end.

Too much rebellion - Babel, it seems, was the last straw.

Of course, that’s not what happened, but I’m sure that’s now it seemed for Terah, Abraham’s father.

Abraham was born at least 290 years Noah fathered Shem.

That was eight generations previously.

When you read [[Genesis 11|Bible: Gen 11]], you were probably bored after a few verses - think if ploughing through those verses took you nearly 300 years.

And yet, we know that wasn’t the end of the story, because God has called Abraham, who would be his chosen man.

It’s almost as if chapter twelve begins a whole new story - a story that reaches, virtually without a break, right up to the end of the book of Joshua.

Those building the tower wanted to make a name for themselves, and we have no idea today of any of their names.

They thought it would stop them being scattered all over the earth, but actually the opposite was true.

But in [[chapter twelve|Bible: Gen 12]], God takes the initiative, and all of God’s promises focus on this one man.

So as early as [[chapter 12|Bible: Gen 12]] of the book of Genesis, we hear God reminding us that the plan of salvation is not something you approach through any way you choose, but on the one and in the way of God choosing.

And as we have one eye to the New Testament, we don’t have to make much of a leap to come the full and definitive expression of this truth, where we see Jesus Christ as /the/ way, /the/ truth, and /the/ life, the man of God’s choice, and the only way to the Living God.

So let’s do what the writer of Genesis does, let’s concentrate on the man of God’s choice.

I can’t spend much time here - this is supposed to be an overview of Exodus, after all - but we start with Abraham to whom is given the promise.

By [[chapter 24|Bible: Gen 24]] the next man of God’s choosing is seen to be Abraham’s son, Isaac, and it’s been clear that he is a son born out of grace (do you remember Sarah’s barrenness?), and kept through grace (do you remember the sacrifice and the ram caught in the thicket?).

The promise is then passed on to Issac’s son - Jacob.

He’s not the man you think would be the one of God’s choosing.

First of all, he’s not the first - by the customs of the day it should have been Esau the first born who received the blessing.

But second of all, he seems to make all the wrong choices.

He deceives his brother, he schemes against his uncle, but at the very least he shows us that God does not always choose nice people.

Moreover, he shows us that God’s plan and purpose cannot be deflected - not even by sin and wickedness.

His successor is Joseph.

Do you remember him?

He was driven down into Egypt by his wicked brothers, but as the writer tells us, just seven verses from the end of the whole book, whilst they intended it for evil, God intended it for good.

So Genesis gives us a history of beginnings, but most importantly, it sets us on a road that does not end at [[chapter 50|Bible: Gen 50]].

Indeed, do you know what the first word of the book of Exodus is in the Hebrew?

It’s the word ‘and’.

That’s why I’ve spent this time recapping the book of Genesis.

Exodus is a continuation of the story of Genesis.

But where does the name ‘Exodus’ come from?

It wasn’t what the Hebrews called the book - they called it simply ‘Shinoot - The Names’, taken from the very first phrase.

Rather the word Exodus comes from the Greek name for the book, which is ‘ex hodus’.

Ex means ‘out of’ and ‘hodus’ means way.

So Exodus means simply ‘the way out’.

And that’s what Exodus is.

It’s a book, that tells you the way out - specifically, they way out of Egypt.

But we need to remember what the Israelites were doing in Egypt in the first place.

Abram was the first to go into Egypt, back in [[chapter 12|Bible: Gen 12]] of Genesis.

Why?

Because he was disobedient to God’s promise?

Not at all, but even early on in the Bible we are starting to see that even suffering can have a part to play in God’s redemptive purposes.

Joseph too ended up in Egypt in [[chapter 37|Bible: Gen 37]] - this time it was the sin of his brothers, and maybe his own pride which took him away from God’s promised land.

Yet whilst Joseph knew God’s presence and God’s blessing in Egypt, his family was suffering famine in the promised land.

Again, early on in the Bible God is reminding us that simply being in the right place, being born into the right country, is no guarantee of blessing.

God cares about what you believe in, and not where you were born.

But the seventy members of Jacob’s family that went down into Egypt were hardly as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, were they?

As I’ve said, Genesis clearly was not the end of the story, because as we get into the opening chapter of Exodus, we read in [[verse 7|Bible: Ex 1:7]] that ‘the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.”

Or look at [[verse 9|Bible: Ex 1:9]]: “the Israelites have become too numerous for us”, or [[verse 12|Bible: Ex 1:12]]: “But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread”, or even [[verse 20|Bible: Ex 1:20]]: “the people increased and became even more numerous.”

Already it seems, Exodus is going to show us that Abraham’s descendants are going to get a lot closer to the promises that God gave him all those years before.

And all this despite the slavery, the poverty, and the impossible demands of the Egyptians.

Here was God blessings his people in the midst of the difficulty!

Yet just as there were many generations, and several hundred years between Noah and Abram, so there were 400 years between Abraham, and the next man of God’s choosing, Moses.

Sometimes we can become impatient for God to fulfill his promises.

But we mustn’t look at [[Exodus 1|Bible: Ex 1]] and ask ‘why did it take God 400 years to bring his people out’.

Rather we should be saying, ‘why did it take 400 years until the people /cried out/ to God!’.

In [[chapter 1|Bible: Ex 1]] we had four repetitions of the way in which God was blessing the Israelites through their increase in number.

But look at the end of [[chapter two|Bible: Ex 2]].

There, finally, long after the birth of Moses, we have the Israelites.

[[Verse 23|Bible: Ex 2:23]]: they ‘groaned’, they ‘cried out’, they gave a ‘cry’ of help, and they ‘moaned’.

They’re four different verbs in the Hebrew.

But look at God’s immediate response.

He heard, he remembered, he looked, and he was concerned.

Some of the words may be different in your translation, but they are powerful words.

The word for groaning is used in Ezekiel 30:24 of someone who has broken both of their arms.

It’s a painful, heartfelt cry.

But look too at the word for concerned.

It is actually the word ‘knew’, as in Adam ‘knew’ his wife Eve.

You cannot get a more intimate word, and it explains God’s care for his people.

But God doesn’t just hear and look, and even know his people, he also remembers.

What does he remember?

Well, he remembers the book of Genesis, and specifically the covenant he made with the men of his choosing.

All this sets the scene for the next man of God’s choosing.

Again, the story illustrates the hand of God, doesn’t it?

At his birth, Moses very survival was in jeopardy.

Almost immediately his will was at risk of being imbibed with Egyptian paganism, but God intervenes so he can be brought up by his Hebrew mother.

Hebrews 11 tells us that there was a danger his heart would be won by the pleasures of sin.

Exodus 2 tells us of the peril that nearly befell him when Pharaoh tried to have him killed.

But are you reading this story with one foot in the New Testament?

Can you remember another baby of God’s choosing born into a situation when the ruler is practicing infanticide?

Can you think of another man who had to overcome great temptation to succeed in God’s plans?