Week 4, January 21–27: Exodus 7-26

• Sun Jan 21: Exod 7-9
• Mon Jan 22: Exod 10-12
• Tue Jan 23: Exod 13-14
• Wed Jan 24: Exod 15-17
• Thu Jan 25: Exod 18-20
• Fri Jan 26: Exod 21-23
• Sat Jan 27: Exod 24-26

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 Red Sea, the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai. Epic movies have been made about these epic events. (I’ll 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’re reading a passage that is quite unfamiliar, or it’s a story you’ve heard or read many times, either way it’s good to try to read with fresh eyes. Try to notice the details in the text. Everything that is said is in there for a reason. You may be surprised at the new things you will see that you may not have really noticed before.

And the other side of this principle is that you may realize the Bible does not say what you always thought it said. Just as everything that is in there is there for a reason, so also everything that is missing is missing for a reason. Sometimes the authors—with God being the divine author—leave our questions unanswered, and that’s okay! Resist the temptation to import or assume something that is left out. There are gaps in the text, and those gaps are important. It can be good to let the unanswered questions remain unanswered.

In Exodus, God delivers the Israelites out of Egypt with mighty acts against Pharoah and the Egyptians. And his 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; and this is a theme that culminates in Jesus at the cross.

There’s another interesting detail in one of these stories of God’s mighty acts in this week’s reading. When the Amalekites are defeated 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) I think this is the first time in the Bible where it talks about writing something down that would later be known of as Scripture. God wanted his people to remember and for future generations to know what he had done. The Bible was and still is God’s way to make himself known to his people.

As we said last week, the two general purposes for doing a read thru like this are 1) to meet with God regularly and hear what he has to say, and 2) to cultivate a lifelong habit of growing in familiarity with God’s word. We’ll come back to the second point later, but let’s think for now about meeting with God and hearing from him regularly. In John 15, Jesus instructs his followers to abide in him as he abides in us. His word abides in us, and we bear fruit, act as his true followers, and glorify God by abiding in him. Having a plan and setting aside a little time each day to sit and read a few chapters is perhaps the most tangible and practical way to practice the concept of abiding in Christ.

We have the Holy Spirit in us. God is with us, the very presence of Christ, by his Spirit dwelling in us. That is an astounding benefit of the gospel and the experience of every follower of Jesus. And the same Spirit that dwells in us is the Spirit who carried along the prophets and apostles in the writing of Scripture (2 Pet 1:21). We are to take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Eph 6:17) in our daily battles that are not against flesh and blood. Reading God’s word is a way, probably the best way, to encounter the God who created all things, who loved us and saved us through his Son, and who is near us and with us.