Week 6, February 1–7: Exodus 4–23; Psalms 1–3

• Sun      Feb 1   Exod. 4–6       
• Mon     Feb 2   Exod. 7–9       
• Tue      Feb 3   Exod. 10–12   
• Wed     Feb 4   Exod. 13–15   
• Thu      Feb 5   Exod. 16–18   
• Fri        Feb 6   Exod. 19–20    Pss. 1–2
• Sat       Feb 7   Exod. 21–23    Ps. 3

Broadly speaking, Exodus has two parts. The first part, chapters 1–18, covers Israel’s time in Egypt, their exodus from slavery there, and their travels towards Mt. Sinai. This section recounts God’s deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt with mighty acts against Pharaoh and the Egyptians. And the Lord’s miraculous care for his people does not end after they leave Egypt or even after they go through the Red Sea. One of the most consistent threads running through the story of the OT is the theme of God demonstrating his infinite power and his infinite love through miraculous acts for his people. The exodus from Egypt is a paradigm for this theme of God’s mighty salvation that runs through the whole Bible and culminates in Jesus at the cross.

Chapter 19 is a transition point in Exodus, marking the shift from the first major section of the book to the second. Moses and the Israelites arrive at Mt. Sinai in chapter 19 and there they receive the laws from the Lord. The rest of Exodus, from chapter 19 through chapter 40, is taken up primarily with the giving of the law, including instructions for the tabernacle and its construction. The setting for the second half of Exodus is at Mt. Sinai, and in fact, the whole book of Leviticus and the first part of Numbers also take place while the Israelites are at Sinai. This broad context of the Pentateuch is important to keep in mind as we read through Exodus, reminding ourselves that these chapters are part of the larger narrative of God and his people.

Exodus contains some of the most familiar and famous stories in all the Bible: Moses and the burning bush, the plagues in Egypt, Israel’s exodus out from Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai. Epic movies have been made about these events. I will probably always imagine Moses looking like Charlton Heston from Cecil B. DeMille’s classic film.

Some parts of the Bible are more familiar than others. Whether you are reading a passage that is quite unfamiliar, or it is a story you have heard or read many times, either way it is good to try to read with fresh eyes. Try to notice the details in the text. Everything that is said has been included for a reason. You may be surprised at the new things you will see that you may not have really noticed before.

And there is a flip side to this principle too. As you read, you will also probably realize that the Bible sometimes does not say what you always thought it said, and it definitely will not say what you sometimes wish was included. Just as everything that is in there is there for a reason, so also everything that is not there is not there for a reason. Sometimes the authors—and God as the divine author—leaves our questions unanswered. And that is not something to be lamented. Resist the temptation to import or assume or speculate about something that is left out. There are gaps in the text, and those gaps are important. It can be good to trust God’s wisdom in Scripture’s inspiration and let the unanswered questions remain unanswered.

We have been considering the purposes for doing a read thru like this, reflecting first on the point that we are doing this to meet with God regularly and hear what he has to say. We follow Jesus’ commands to abide in him by reading his word regularly. Now, we noted earlier that someone calculated you could read through the whole Bible in approximately 75 hours. I suppose you could skip work or school for a week, find a secluded place, and just read for several hours a day and get through it all at once. There would certainly be a lot of benefit to that, but it is not the same as reading a manageable portion regularly, daily, or at least most days.

I think we can see a helpful analogy in the principle of manna. This week we read Exodus 16, where God miraculously provides manna for the Israelites in the wilderness. He sent it every day for six days a week and he instructed them to collect a certain portion each day, enough for each member of the household. But they were not to collect more than the allotted portion for one day and they were not to leave it over to the next day, except on the sixth day, when they were to gather twice as much in preparation for the Sabbath. Day after day, for 40 years, the Lord gave just what they needed, not more and not less. They were simply to obey his instructions to gather the manna daily and they were to trust that he would provide what was needed for their nourishment again the next day.

In a similar way, by spending time regularly, daily reading the Bible to hear from him, we are nourished with the spiritual bread of Scripture. We do not need to consume it all at once or feel pressure to take it all in and understand it fully right away. Meeting with God in his word is a regular, daily habit that sustains us and helps us grow in our knowledge of and love for God over time.

When we order our day around reading his word, it means we are making it a priority to receive what he has graciously given to us. It is an investment of time, and it is okay to admit that it can seem like another task in our already busy lives. We will find, though, that as we make it a priority and a regular part of our day, he will reward that effort, and it will become a joyful habit instead of a monotonous chore. It may even become the part of our day we look forward to most. In future posts, we will continue to reflect on the idea that cultivating the habit of Bible reading helps us grow in a lifelong journey of knowing God through Scripture.

There’s another interesting detail in one of these stories in Exodus, another part of God’s mighty acts we encounter in this week’s reading. In Exodus 17, when the children of Israel defeat the Amalekites in battle, which is clearly a victory from the Lord, he instructs Moses to “write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua.” (Exod. 17:14) This is the first time the idea of writing down Scripture occurs in Scripture. There are other instances like this recorded int eh Bible too—places where it talks about writing something down that would later become known as Scripture—but this is the first. God wanted his people to remember what had happened there, for future generations to know what he had done. The Bible was and still is God’s way to make himself known and remembered to his people.