 Alright good morning everyone and good morning to the online students as well we will begin today with Exodus yesterday we were talking about Genesis and hopefully you learnt a few new things and today we will be moving into the book of Exodus and we will just look at you know get a brief overview of this particular book now yesterday there were no questions in the online Google Classroom stream so maybe there were no doubts from the book of Genesis or at least no simple doubts that can be clarified easily so and today too you know if you have anything online students if you have any doubts any questions feel free to post them on the stream page of the Google Classroom alright so Exodus, Exodus covers quite a large period of time we see the account beginning sometime before Moses arrival that is you know for about 400 years after the death of Joseph you had the Israelites living over there in the land and of Egypt and so now those 400 years are almost done and that is when this book of Exodus begins so it covers the time span from the time of Joseph's death right up to the setting of the tabernacle in the wilderness that entire time period is covered in our book of Exodus and as we all know the main focus of Exodus is on how God delivers the Israelites from Egypt and also it talks about how this Israelite people become a nation up to that time they were just known as a people group of slaves but now once they come out of Egypt they become a nation of their own and of course in the coming books we would see how they you know establish themselves in their own land and all of those further details so what happened to them in Egypt was not something unanticipated something you know shocking because the Lord already knew that they would go through this phase of slavery we see that very clearly mentioned in Genesis itself in Genesis chapter 15 verses 13 to 21 the Lord tells Abraham beforehand itself that the Israelites will be enslaved for about 400 years in the land of Egypt so this is something that the Lord already was aware of and informed Abraham about and then there's something important that the Lord says to Abraham he says that after they are delivered after they come out of Egypt and they enter into the promised land he says that in that place God would use the Israelites as his instrument of judgment and we see that in Genesis chapter 15 verse 16 so maybe we can have one person read out here in the classroom Genesis chapter 15 verse 16 and those of us who are online if we could please you know follow this in our Bibles it talks about the how the the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its peak but when the time comes then Israelites will be used as God's instrument to judge the Amorites so over here the term Amorites is being used as a as a commonplace general term to refer to all the Canaanite nations which are there in the land of Canaan because the Amorites were a larger people group and so in certain places we see that rather than you know referring to them as Canaanites the term Amorites is used so it's not specifically talking about just the Amorite people because God's judgment does come upon the other people groups living over there as well so over here in this particular verse Genesis 15 16 the term Amorite is being used as a common term to refer to all of the people who are living in the land of Canaan upon whom the judgment would be coming and if I remember rightly it's I think seven we would actually deal with this in the book of Joshua but I think it's specifically seven people groups that God wants to bring judgment upon and so he specifically tells the Israelites to target those particular people groups and bring God's judgment upon them you know through war and through invasion and conquest of that land and so coming to the writing styles which have been used in the book of Exodus now we are more familiar with this term genre which we looked at last class so there are two genres mentioned here in our book of Exodus we of course have narrative history this historical record being written in prose form but we also have a legal lists of laws many laws written down in a in a legal writing style you know which was used in the ancient Near East in those times so that particular writing style is used to to write out the many instructions and laws which the Lord began to give to Moses some I'm trying to stand close to the mic so I hope that now I'm more clear to the online students because you know one of you had said that the volume is not too clear so I hope I'm more audible now yeah all right now again based on the chronology which is there in first Kings chapter 6 you know which we talked about yesterday based on the chronology given over there they assess they you know they calculate backward and they assess that most probably Moses wrote Exodus between 1450 and 1410 BC and in fact in the book of Exodus we have at least three or four mentions where it actually where the Lord says to Moses write down what I am saying so we have evidence that Moses was actually writing down and recording all the things that were taking place maybe we could just look at one example of that Exodus chapter 17 verse 14 if we could have one person read out that please Exodus 17 verse 14 so there are many occasions where the Lord tells him write down these things because these things should be recorded and preserved for future generations as well so this is kind of evidence it's kind of proof that Moses was the author of Exodus so you know those who say that Moses did not write they would have to deal with these verses where it clearly says that Moses were was putting down a written record and these he would have later edited and re-edited and you know composed into one final format so we can be quite sure that Moses was involved in the writing of the book of Exodus what else some of the key personalities that we find in this book we have of course Moses himself because he's the leader who leads the people we also have Miriam who's given emphasis because you know she she figures in the beginning of the book where she is you know assisting her baby brother then later on also she acts as a prophetess and sings out songs to the Lord so we have Miriam playing an active role of course we have Pharaoh and Pharaoh's daughter who play an important part in the you know events which take place we also have Aaron and of course Joshua is also mentioned we have Joshua being introduced in the book of Exodus now coming to the structure of Exodus we could say that the first seven chapters form section one because in the first seven chapters we get an idea of what the Israelites were going through in Egypt we see that they have been enslaved and the Pharaoh is very much against them and life is very very difficult for them and we also get an introduction to Moses in the first seven chapters we can say that chapter 7 to 13 form the second section the second important section because in chapter 7 to 13 is where we see the Lord releasing all those 10 plagues upon the Egyptians we also see you know the final judgment of death on the first one which comes upon all the people who refuse to yield to Yahweh and we also see an account of the Passover where because the Israelites and some of the other people choose to obey Yahweh and you know cover their front door with the blood of the sacrifice they are spared and God passes over them and does not judge them so we see all of those things in the second section chapters 7 to 13 coming to the third section we could probably say that that would be chapters 14 to 18 so chapters 14 to 18 is where it actually talks about how they make their exodus the term exodus literally means going out exiting so they exit Egypt they leave Egypt and they set out so that would be recorded in chapters 14 to 18 and we also see how God brings judgment upon the army which tries to pursue them and they are all killed over there at the Red Sea so we see an account of that the next section main section would be chapters 19 to 24 where you have the laws and instructions which are being given by God all those would be found in chapters 19 to 24 and finally we come to chapters 25 to 40 the last section where you have specific instructions being given regarding the priests regarding how they should worship regarding the construction of the tabernacle all of those things are found in the last section chapters 25 to 40 now in your textbook we have a comparison being made you know exodus being compared with the other books of the Bible and the comparison made with the book of Leviticus is interesting because it talks about how in exodus we are introduced to the Passover lamb where the people are told that they must sacrifice the lamb and apply its blood on the on their front door so exodus introduces us to the Passover lamb but the details about the sacrifices and all of that that comes in the next we find that in the next book which is Leviticus and so in exodus we see God taking the initiative to reach out to the people to help them and to deliver them but in Leviticus the people are being urged to make take the initiative and reach out to God so in exodus it's God reaching out to the Israelites and in Leviticus it's the people who are being encouraged to reach back to God reach out to him and respond to him you know by following all that the Lord is teaching them so in the book of exodus we have God coming to them as their savior because he wants to deliver them redeem them but in Leviticus he is more their sanctifier he wants them to change their lifestyle start following the laws which have been laid down and reach out to God and establish a relationship with him so this is the kind of comparison that we see between exodus and Leviticus so having done with those preliminaries let's come to the some of the key concepts some of the key events you know things that maybe we can focus on in this book of exodus and yeah my hand waivers you know do not hesitate when we hit 1140 you know don't hesitate just wave your hand till you get my attention because I think people have a right to ask their questions okay so coming to the first thing that we can focus on why was Pharaoh was so concerned about the Israelites increasing in number why did that why did he feel so threatened by that and the main reason for that would be in those days the larger the number of people the larger would be the army because I mean now we just use weapons you know we can even use remote long-distance weapons but in those days it's literally hand to hand combat and so the larger your army is the more people you have fighting on your side so the greater chances of you winning in a battle and so for them a large population was so important and here you have outsiders living in the land of Egypt and not only are they just living over there they are flourishing their numbers are increasing exploding so imagine if one day all these lights think to themselves hey why don't we form an army and take over this land this is a nice place instead of having an Egyptian Pharaoh sitting over there on the throne we can have one of our own guys sitting there on the throne so that was a threat it's a serious threat which the Pharaoh would have thought about so which is why it says you know in the beginning of Exodus a Pharaoh who did not know the Israelites because earlier there was an understanding between the previous Pharaoh and the people the people were grateful to the Pharaoh for having taken them into his land and all of that so there was there were amicable relationships but now a new Pharaoh has come to the throne he does not really know any of the Israelites personally and he starts seeing them as a danger because their numbers are increasing so rapidly they could do something if they wish to also the fact that they have settled down in the land of Goshen which was in fact a very fertile very prosperous region which means the Israelites would have been financially in a very sound state they would have had lots of flocks they would have had a lot of crops so financially they would have been in a really good place so if they really want to mobilize and turn themselves into an army and fight against the Egyptians they could have done that and so out of fear for these things Pharaoh decides that he's going to take away all of their rights all of their properties and he's going to reduce them into a bunch of slaves who would have absolutely no rights of any kind they would have no property nothing they would be completely dependent upon the Pharaoh so he deliberately reduces them to that state to kind of keep them under control and when even that doesn't work he starts panicking because you see in spite of making them into slaves they're still flourishing they're still increasing in numbers and so then he now you know issues and orders saying that the babies should be killed in the hope that at least then maybe the population would reduce so for him you know if you were to place yourself in his shoes he did consider the Israelites as a serious danger to his throne and in fact to his kingdom. Coming to another aspect that maybe we should dwell upon he says specifically when he gives his order that the baby should be thrown into the Nile. Now there are I mean it's a very terrible thing to even think about but you know if you want to kill a child there are a hundred different ways in which a child can be killed why specifically is he saying that they should be thrown into the river Nile and that has a religious significance because for them for the Egyptians the Nile was a holy river something which is easy for us Indians to understand because you know in India too we have rivers which are regarded by certain religions as being holy so for instance the river Ganga is considered holy because they believe it is the personification of that particular idol you know by the name of Ganga so they believe that that that this river is a personification of or rather the river is a personification of that particular God so in that sense this Nile was significant to these people because they believed that that the God of the Nile was Apis which was actually a bull and another goddess named Isis so these were considered to be the gods of the Nile and the waters which are flowing over there in the Nile that's actually supposed to be the blood of one of the other gods named Osiris so for them at various levels this particular river had a lot of religious significance so if these babies of these foreign babies which belong to a different people if they are sacrificed to the river you know it would be like a like a offering which the Pharaoh is giving to his gods so he specifies that the babies which are being born should be thrown into the Nile as a kind of offering to their to their Egyptian gods so there is religious significance in that also you know maybe have that instance mentioned where you have the Pharaoh's daughter going to the river to take a bath why I mean does she have no bathroom in her own palace you know she's after all the princes she would have her own private pool you know she doesn't exactly need to use anybody else's bathroom in fact she has she'll have her own special preheated pool so why would she go there to the river you know to to dunk herself in the water over there again religious significance so and this is again something easy for us Indians to understand because people go all the way to the Ganges not because there's any shortage of bathrooms in India but because they believe that to be a holy place and so if they go and you know dunk themselves in the water there that would be part of their purification process so the Nile was considered very very significant by the Egyptians due to its you know religious overtones now coming to the next aspect when God brings the plagues upon the Egyptians he is very he chooses his plagues in a very strategic manner so it's not just that randomly got things okay fine I think you know insects would be a good idea let me send some insects and I think I'll add some frogs as well no it's not that there's a again a very strong spiritual significance behind each of the ten plagues you know just for us to look at a few examples we have you know the frogs which are sent as one of the plagues now the frog God was very sacred to the Egyptians it was called something hecca yeah right hecca the okay it's not a God a goddess okay hecca was a frog-headed goddess so the frog was considered sacred and it was a serious offense to kill frogs so the Egyptians would never kill frogs but now when there's a plague of frogs you literally have Pharaoh pleading with Moses saying please can you get rid of these frogs indirectly he's saying you know can you kindly get rid of Hecca our you know our goddess so you see God is very deliberately trying to show Pharaoh and the Egyptians that hey I'm the God of Gods and the Lord of Lords and your you should be submitting to me is giving them a chance is giving them a demonstration and showing that if you follow me you would be under my protection and you know things can change for you so God is trying to give them clear evidence of who he is that he is the true and living God and so that is the attack upon the frog goddess coming to just one of the other you know place that is sent we have the plague of boils now the priests who would perform you know the different rituals in there in the Egyptian temples they needed to be very pure and clean especially their skin you would not they should not have any kind of skin diseases and most definitely not any boils and now when the people break out in boils you have even the priests all of them covered with boils which means now they cannot even enter into any of their temples and perform the rituals because they would be going inside in a very unclean condition so that again we see is a direct attack upon the Egyptian religions the belief system which they had at that time to take another example Egypt you know even in fact even today Egypt as we know has a very low ratio of rainfall that's just because you know the because of the region that you know that it's situated in and they say that there is less than one inch a year in Cairo so you know they mainly depend on this extensive irrigation projects which they have and of course you have the Nile so you know so they mainly depend on that for their water supply so ISIS was supposed to be was it ISIS or someone else can't remember their gods and goddesses okay so yeah yeah it is ISIS she was supposed to be the God of the air and the rain and all of that and so you know if they are placing their belief in this particular goddess and she's supposed to be supplying them with rain with all her ability you know mythologically speaking with all her ability she's only able to provide one inch of rain in an entire year but now what does the Lord do he says what is rain rain is nothing let me actually bring down hail and not just little tiny little pellets of hail but you know literally large huge stones of hail which are big enough to inflict damage and so again and again through the place God is trying to show them because never ever forget that he's a God of compassion he likes to redeem he likes to save he likes to show people that hey if you can come to me I can change things for you so he's trying to show the Egyptians again and again that I am the true and living God and I'm demonstrating we cannot hear you we cannot hear anything we are familiar with their own God but Moses is asking here if I go to them and I say the God of your forefathers has come to deliver you and they ask we see what is this name what do I say it shows the condition in which the Israelites were at this particular point in time where they did not even know who their goddess they had forgotten or the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph that was their condition and we have a reference to this in okay so it is audible is it that's good then someone has asked why do you why don't you repeat what was said I was just talking about how the Israelite people had forgotten their own God you know when you look at Exodus chapter 3 verses 13 to 16 Moses says to the Lord Lord when I go to the people and tell them that God wants to deliver you and if they say to me what is his name what do I say so it shows that the Israelites were no longer even aware of who their God was who the God of Abraham I said Jacob and Joseph is because they have you know been indulging themselves in idolatry for so long that they have forgotten their own God and we see evidence of this in Joshua chapter 24 verse 14 if we could have maybe one person turn to Joshua 24 verse 14 and read out that particular verse because that shows what these lights were doing during their time in Egypt 24 pointing so it says here very clearly Joe Joshua is speaking to the people and he says you know the God's that your ancestors worship so for the at least maybe for maybe about a hundred years you know after Joseph's death maybe the people continue being faithful to the Lord but after that they all gradually began to slip into idolatry they began to worship the gods of the Egyptians and so over here Joshua is very specifically bringing up that point and he says throw away these gods that your ancestors have been worshipping in Egypt it's time for you to return to the Lord and that is why you know Moses asks this strange question because he knows he knows the people have except for a few faithful ones like Moses parents who have been holding on to the true God the rest have gone so far away that they did not even know the name of the Lord and that is why Moses raises that question and God says this is my name you know the Lord says I am who I am and it can also be translated as I will be who I will be because oh they it does not really give us a tense it's not necessarily past tense or present tense it's all tenses in the sense he just is he's not confined inside time so he just is he was he is he will be he always just is he's outside of time and he says that he says tell them that this is who I am and so there is a time aspect to this grace where God says I am that I am so he is outside of time is unlimited in that sense but he's also unlimited in all the other senses because you see at least for the last 300 years these Israelites have been worshipping or Cyrus who is supposed to give them crops they have they have been worshipping you know Isis who is supposed to take care of their dead after they die and go to wherever they are supposed to be going this Isis supposed to look after them over there so they've been worshipping this Isis and they have been worshipping all these other gods and all these other gods have their departments you know the Cyrus can give you crops but he really can't do anything much for you once you're dying you know so for that you need someone else and you have this particular God who gives victory in war can't remember the name I think now Horus Horus is the person who's supposed to give you and Horus cannot make your crops grow Horus can only you know give you victory in war these are all limited entities that the Egyptians have created you know and have written down written records about these entities whom they themselves have manufactured but this one who says I am that I am he is everything you can't say okay you I am you know you're limited to providing agricultural fertility and you can't say okay it is the God who gives reign no he is everything I mean in fact apart from him nothing was ever made that was made he is all and he brought this world into creation so there is great significance in this place I am that I am you can't define me the Lord is saying you can't define me you can't say I am this this this and I'm just that I'm beyond that I'm beyond anything that your human mind can even begin to imagine or think because you know as humans there are things that we understand there are things that we know exist but there are things beyond our understanding which we do not even know anything about and he is Lord over all of that as well so he says I am that I am no limitations of any kind beyond all understanding beyond all comprehension so that phrase I am that I am encompasses all that he is and he is infinitely beyond our understanding okay so we see the beauty of of God presenting himself revealing himself to these slaves in that manner because they were living in such tight restricted you know imprisoned situations and circumstances and here is someone who is unlimited coming to them and offering himself to them and saying I will be your redeemer and you will have no limitations because he is limitless so there's actually a great offer that God is making to them over here okay what else can we look at oh yeah this one question which is generally raised they say God hardened Pharaoh's heart what a terrible thing to do I mean poor Pharaoh there he was all innocent sitting on his throne and God hardened his heart you know and they kind of make it sound as though God deliberately chose to turn someone into evil but they don't you know dwell on the fact that long before God said everything the man had already made plans to take people who are living peacefully in the land of Goshen minding their own business he takes away their land he takes away their crops you see they had legal right to that land it was given to them by a previous Pharaoh there were legal papers to back up the property that they had and this man takes away everything that they have this Pharaoh takes away everything that they have and starts plotting on how he can harm them and destroy them and at that point of time no one was hardening his heart his heart was his own to do with as he wishes there are steps which Pharaoh takes all by himself without any compulsion or outside pressure from anyone and then we come to Exodus chapter 7 verses 13 to 14 okay and it would be good if we could read these two verses Exodus chapter 7 verses 13 and 14 you know if we can have someone quickly read that over here please and hoping that all of you can hear online i'm trying to talk extra loudly so Exodus 7 13 to 14 yes okay so Aaron performs a sign he takes the staff the wooden staff and turns it into a snake and we know the rest of the story because we know we're running out of time but the point is god demonstrates that he is more powerful than all the magic which they can come up with and after seeing that with his own eyes you know all that is done right in front of the Pharaoh after seeing that Pharaoh chooses to harden his heart at this point of time nobody is hardening his heart he's taking a decision on his own he chooses to think okay even though i'm seeing that this god is more powerful no no no i don't want to give in i do not want to submit and we continue seeing in Exodus 7 22 8 15 8 19 8 32 9 7 even as all the five flakes are going on it is Pharaoh who chooses to harden his own heart no one is forcing him to harden his heart in all of these bible verses and then finally in Exodus 9 12 god does what god told you know he would do because god knew about this and so god had told moses already this is what is going to happen even though again and again you're going to go to Pharaoh he will refuse to believe he will choose to harden his heart and god says i will harden this heart okay so the first step is taken by Pharaoh himself he makes a conscious choice even though five flakes demonstrate the power of god they demonstrate that god is superior to all other beings Pharaoh still chooses to harden his heart and then the lord steps in and god says if this man chooses to continue hardening his heart then i will help him i will assist him to destroy himself and so it is only in Exodus chapter 9 verse 12 that god steps in and begins to harden his heart and so we see in 9 12 10 1 and then in chapter 11 and chapter 14 that god hardens his heart so it is the same even for people i mean the rest of us you know it's a kind of word of portion again and again we who are in the new testament times the holy spirit will again and again convict us convict us convict us but if we choose to continue hardening our hearts then the lord at some point would say all right if you want to suffer and learn and you know learn your lessons from that you know he would say fine go ahead and so he would allow us to continue hardening our hearts and then you know we would fall we would hurt ourselves there would be serious consequences and all of that so the lord never starts out hardening anyone's heart the choice is given to the person to decide what what they would like to do what choices they would like to make and it's only when they continue to walk in those ways that god says yeah god says that you know he would need to step in and take action all right so we are almost out of time and anyone who has questions there are no questions we still have another six minutes to go uh if anyone has any questions shall we then move on into the next point all right um why was the final judgment the god's final judgment upon egypt was uh the you know killing of the first one why why were the first born sons that is because the egyptians uh in their religious tradition the first born of each household uh the male the boy the first male born into that home he would be dedicated to their egyptian gods so he would be he's supposed to serve the the the egyptian gods and so after seeing nine plagues and after seeing the power of Yahweh during those nine plagues those who still refuse to place the blood on their door post they would have they indirectly say we choose to continue dedicating our children to our gods they are not willing to submit and yield to Yahweh and so the judgment that comes upon them um okay doesn't really help much but yeah they still have five minutes to go okay so god's judgment comes upon the first bohan because the first bohan of each family was dedicated to the egyptian gods and those uh refused to change their loyalties and switched to Yahweh all of them who refused to place the blood on their front door uh they are the ones who's uh you know who come under the judgment of gods the judgment of their which comes upon the uh first bohan all right maybe um yeah any questions at all because i have the ability to go on and on forever no questions on it just one last life and then i just want to travel and how much more information i can so that may be useful to you somewhere down the line uh one question which they ask this you know if a bunch of slaves came out of the egypt and uh they go through the wilderness and then they finally arrive at the promised land where or not did they pick up weapons from how did they pick up into an army um so you know they there are people who just like to criticize and commend you on the things given in the bible but there are easy answers to these things because you see you know even before the it's like beneath the land of the jib god well said ask from your neighbors ask for more and ask for you know um well and also you know it says over here in Exodus 12 verse 35 and 36 it says um the lord who made the egyptians favorably disposed toward the people and they gave them what they asked for so uh we do not know what at all they asked for but they might have asked even for weapons it says they plundered the egyptians so they did to be um wiped out anything of value so weapons was nothing very very valuable so i'm pretty sure that any um you know careful strategic thinking Israelites would have asked even for some weapons because they're going to be going on a journey now to the promised land and they wouldn't require some kind of protection so they probably could have asked for weapons and other sorts of weaponry would be when after the incident to the red sea where the you know the the egyptian soldiers were all gonna drown so even as a they you know lifeless bodies would have washed up onto the shore you know the arms which are weapons which are attached to their belt and all of that they would have retrieved those weapons as well so so everything that is written in the scriptures can actually be you know logically you know backed up so we must be willing to trust for the scriptures that are teaching us all right um i think we can maybe close over here so uh if there are any more uh doubts you know those of you who are online could post your doubts in the stream page why did god choose moses to leave the Israelites probably due to his parents because they were a couple who did not go into idolatry like the others just now we did in joshua chapter 24 if we saw the way the most of the people went into idolatry but there were some people very few people who held on the god of the egyptian and i said they did not turn away and here was a couple who stayed faithful to the god and they also taught their children about it and so moses was aware of who this god is so because of um maybe it was because of um his parents that moses got children because i'm not just my explanation purely all right so uh there may be other explanations as well all right so we will control now because we're out of time and uh yeah any other questions that you would like to post on the stream page are you most welcome to thank you thank you so much