 Can you hear me now? Okay, I'll start it all over again. Welcome to today's session on the Book of Exodus, which is the second book of the Old Testament. Before we could start, can one of us say a word of prayer please? Sid, can you lead us in prayer? Hallelu-Lia, hallelu-Lia, hallelu-Lia, hallelu-Lia, Hallelu-Lia, hallelu-Lia, hallelu-Lia, for Almighty Father God, we come to the throne now Gates. We thank you for giving us this time, in the time we will learn about Exodus and all the Bible in the Old Testament Lord. We thank you that you have given us this opportunity that we are going to learn from your word. We are going to learn the scriptures, the hope, the authentic hope, so Lord you have given us. We are Lord as we learn from your word, Lord please give us the wisdom and enlighten us with your word so that we can learn in our future generations which are going to serve you Lord. We might be like the tools to you to be used for your kingdom Lord, all your guidance Lord, we need your guidance Lord, we need your blessing, we need the guidance of the Holy Spirit Lord, whatever you want, let's get we should put in the practice Lord and you should love us Lord. Let us set an example for our fellow countrymen or Lord, let all we learn in this chapter Lord, all we learn in this Bible school Lord, let us keep it in the like the tablet in our heart Lord, you have said them to all seven Lord, whatever the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge Lord, we need your wisdom Lord, we need your knowledge Lord, we have to fear Lord so that you can give us wisdom Lord, whatever we learn here Lord, let us be kept in our heart Lord, in Jesus name we pray amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you Sid, thank you for leading us in prayer, well before we could start the class I'll just project the screen to us, the notes. Everyone can see this, the second chapter on our notes on the book of Exodus, can everyone see? Yes ma'am. Yes ma'am. Yes ma'am. Thank you for the confirmation. So the time that passes between the last verse of the Genesis and the first verse of Exodus is about 400 years, then the 70 people we saw in the last class, the 70 people who moved from Egypt, who moved to Egypt in an effort to survive through the great famine had now multiplied into two or three million people. And seeing that the Israelites abundantly multiplied and exceedingly mighty, the new king who did not know Joseph was terrified and inflicted them with heavy burdens in order to build new cities. So with this as the background we will just see what our notes says before we could study in-depth background of the book of Exodus. On the right side of our notes we see that there's a chart which talks about the focus, the redemption from Egypt and the revelation from God. We see the references given from chapter 1 to chapter 40 which talks about the need for redemption and how they prepared for the redemption and how God redeems Israel. And then how he preserves the Israel and how he forms it as a nation and he establishes a covenant with them. And lastly in chapter 32 to 40 we see the response of Israel to God's covenant. With that we come to the author. So do we know who's the author of this book? Moses. Great, thank you. So this book, yes, thanks, good, yes. So the date and the location of this book which was written is, you know, the date they say approximate date. Okay, they are not exact but they approximate in 1004 46 BC. This was written by Moses and we also see the very purpose of this book to continue the history of Israel began in Genesis and it reveals the personal relational and the covenant making nature of God. And we also see God's concern for and part to rescues people. And we see how God provides moral social and spiritual laws for Israel. And we also see the three unique features in this book, the events of Exodus marks as Israel's birth as a nation and it marks the beginning of Israel's tabernacle and the yearly festivals. And we also see one of the major event as the crossing, the miraculous or the supernatural crossing of the Red Sea. And then we come across and I know the comparison of the book of Exodus with the other books and they compare here with the book of Leviticus which we can go through it. And below we come to the outline. Before we could go through the outline, I would like to share about the background, share about what is this book of Exodus reveals to us. And after that, we will study on the key points or the key events from this book that we could learn that we could take it from this book. So we see the background of this book is the more the Egyptians when we see the Israelites multiplied many in number in this Egypt and year, there's a race of Pharaoh who did not know about Joseph and he's been terrified and inflicted by these people, by these people growing large in numbers. So he wants to burden them in order to build new cities and the more the Egyptians burdened the Israelites, the more they grew and multiplied making things worse. The Israelites were made to work as slaves in Egypt and this is how God calls Moses through the burning bush. And we see in Exodus records a story of how God supernaturally delivers his people from the bondage of slavery in Egypt and how God leads his people to Mount Sinai and gives them the Ten Commandments. We also see how God teaches them to worship and serve him eventually, formed them into a nation governed by his law, began leading to the promised land of Cana. We see Moses being the only recorded eyewitness to all these events of Exodus. He writes this book around, we saw that in 1446 BC and he wrote this book to continue the history of Israel that began in Genesis to show God's concern and power to rescue his people and to provide moral, social and spiritual laws for Israel. The events of Exodus just didn't mark the Israel's birth as a nation, but also marks the beginning of Israel's tabernacle and yearly festivals. We see that Exodus also shows how God, God is people out of Egypt, whereas Leviticus shows us how we try to get Egypt out of his people. So, let's look at the key events or the key chapters, the events that occurred in the Exodus that we, that you and I should remember. So, I will just share my screen on the ten key events that we can discuss today. These are the ten key events that we would like to look into today. The first is in Exodus chapter 3, 1 to 12, we see the call of Moses through the burning bush. Anyone wondered how God called Moses? What story of his people Israel goes all the way back to his call, the call of Abraham and his promise that he will make him a great nation and lead his descendants into the Promised Land. And we find that, you know, how God is trying to keep that promise with Israel. Though they have been struggling in Egypt, they have been oppressed as slave laborers to Pharaoh and these Israelites cry out to the Lord and God hears they cry. So what happened to God's promise? Had it been forgotten at the outset of the story of the Moses call of God? God remembers his promise with Israel and here God calls Moses through the burning bush and he introduces himself to Moses saying that I'm the God, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And right now Moses is about 80 years old, advanced in his age at this time when God called him. But when God asked Moses to be the leader to bring the Hebrews out of the capital, he cried out saying to the Lord saying, who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt. He was not the impetuous person he had been 40 years before when he had tried to help his own people by his own strength and happened to kill an Egyptian and he had to flee from Egypt to Median. Now he was humbled so that he had to lean upon the Lord. Though initially he didn't agree but later he accepted the call of God and God said, certainly I will be with you. God assures, affirms Moses that he will be with him and the same assurance, the same affirmation God is doing with each of us today. When he has called us just like Moses, he has called us, he has set us apart and if God can say Moses that he will be with him, surely certainly the same God is calling you and me and he's affirming us that he will be with us and friends if God is with us who can be against us. Now back to Moses. Moses was afraid to go back to the children of Israel because he did not think they would listen to him but God gave him authority. God not only calls us but he also gives us the strength, the authority. God told him to tell the people that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had sent him. The Jewish people even till this time or even to the time of Jesus honored their father Abraham very highly. So if the God of Abraham was speaking to them, they should listen. God told Moses everything that he should say to his people and so he does to each of us as his true ministers. The spirit of the God who abides with us teaches us in the same way as he thought Moses. Moses was a simple man when God called him. He was so much dependent on God, the man where the Bible records that he was an orator and the same person looks at God and says I cannot speak well and here God gives him an assistant but God encourages him to speak the same way God is looking at each one of us and he is encouraging us to take up his call and speak because the scripture says that God is with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. When God is set as when God has called us and set us apart he prepares us. The scripture also says that you don't have to worry about what you have to say for I am the God who puts his word into our mouth and speaks to people because he is a God who knows the needs of people. He knows the situation, the circumstance what each of us are in and he speaks exactly to each one in the way that they can understand. So we need to depend on God as we accept his call. He gives us the authority and he leads us. All we need to do is just like Moses lean on God so that he can do great and mighty things in and through us because that's what the scripture says that you shall do greater things than what I do. That's what Jesus said but this we will move on to the second point the 10 plagues. You see that in Exodus chapter 7 verse 14 to 12 14 to chapter 12 till verse 30 as the Passover tells it after Pharaoh refuses Moses you know there were a lot of plagues. There were 10 plagues that God sent to rescue the people of Israel from Egypt because Pharaoh's heart was hardened. He refused to let the Israelites go from Egypt. So God sends a series of 10 plagues to pressure the Egyptian ruler Pharaoh. Each time Pharaoh promises to free the Israelites but he reverses his decision when plague is lifted until the last one. The 10 plagues are the water turning to blood, frogs released, lies, flies, livestock, pestilence, there were boils on people, hails and locus and you know locus eating up everything the crop and filling up all the places and there was darkness for three days and still the Pharaoh heart was hardened and he never let them go. Yes the first seven plagues he was in control and his heart he made his heart hardened and he decided not to go but later part we see how God hardens Pharaoh's heart. What we learn from this situation is a God is a he has control of everyone. God controlled Pharaoh's heart as well. At the last plague when it when it was afflicted the killing of the first born of children this moved Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Moses like immediately take your people and go away from here and he let them go. Even when Israel even when Moses journeyed his people and they reached the Red Sea the Red Sea Pharaoh's heart changed again he chased them and he came there with his army but then we will unfold the story much later what happens but here we see the plagues which are recorded in the book of Exodus are the demonstration of God's power over not only on Pharaoh but also over the gods of Egypt. So the 10 plagues that was that afflicted the Egypt where the 10 gods which Egypt the Egyptian worshipped and God overpowered them but this we will move on to the third point the Exodus in Exodus chapter 12 verse 31 to 42 we see the Exodus the liberation of people of Israel from slavery in Egypt the 13th century we see that the leadership of how Moses leadership moved people and how we minister to them in an organized manner and how God taught him how God instructed Moses to lead the people of Israel and he led them with freedom but this we will move on to the fourth point Passover we see that in chapter 12 the heartless Pharaoh still refused to free the Israelite slaves so God brought one last plague the last plague was the firstborn to be died which was so terrible that it was certain to persuade Pharaoh to let his slaves go that night God sent the angel of death to kill the firstborn sons of Egyptians and God told Moses to order the Israelite family to sacrifice a lamb which is a which is spotless and smear the blood on the door of the lamppost in this way the angel of dead would know to pass over the house of the Israelites and this is why the festival commemorating the escape from the Egypt is known as Passover and they still celebrate among the Jewish people this we will move on to the fifth point Red Sea Crossing we read this in Exodus chapter 14 as the Israelites at left Pharaoh changed his mind he called his army and set off to pursue the Israelites on chariots the Israelites are in great fear they cried out to Moses and they said it would have been better for us to stay than to die in the wilderness and we look at Moses being the leader he looks up to God and asks God what should I do now and God ordered Moses to stretch out the staff over the Red Sea and the sea parted this allowed the Israelites to escape through the sea and way from Egypt unarmed just like Moses just like the Israelites even we face a lot of obstacles in our life we see there's no other way just like how the Red Sea was before them letting them no way even we have faced many circumstances or we may be in midst of the situation where there's no way and God is reminding us today look up to him when we look up to him God gives us a solution he makes a way where there's no way the God who made a way for Israelites through Moses he will certainly make a way for you and me as the Israelites were passing through the way that passing through the Red Sea which was parted we see Pharaoh's army falling them and charging them into the sea and Moses looks up to the Lord and then he waves his staff and the sea returned back to its normal height following all the entire army of Pharaoh and the story of escape from Egypt commemorates the Jewish people every year during the festival of Passover they read the story to their children to remember how God freed Israel from the slavery of Egypt so in this way they keep the idea of being freedom is kept alive and it's continuous continuously passed on to the generation to generation but this we will move on to the sixth point Exodus sixth point which talks about the bread from the heaven Exodus 16 not only after the Jewish people had escaped Egypt and crossed the Red Sea they ran out of the food they had brought with them they began to grumble recall the tasty meals they had enjoyed when they were slaves and Moses was facing difficult time with these people in the wilderness and he looks up to God for each and every situation that he came across the difficult situation he came across by leading these people he looked up to God for the solution and God told Moses that he would rain down the bread from heaven for the people and that evening bread and meat from the heaven to the people and that evening we see the quail came and covered the camp can people kill the birds and ate their meat and the next morning we see the dew evaporated a white substance covered the ground the bible describes the substance as mana as a fine flaky substance white like coriander seed and tasting like wafer made with honey Moses instructed the people to gather and as much as needed in two parts for each person each day when some of people try to save extra that extra part which was remained was wormy and it got spoiled so this way God was teaching people that he is the provider for each and every day and depend on God don't worry about tomorrow because I am the Lord your provider I provide you I meet your needs so God was teaching people to take what is required and mana appeared for six days in a row on Friday the Hebrew way to gather or double the portion on Fridays the Hebrews were instructed to gather double the portion because it did not appear on the next day the Sabbath and yet the portion they saved for Sabbath did not spoil because that was the instruction that God gave them mana was a supernatural food that God gave to the Israelites during this 40 years wandering in the desert so what does this word mana mean in Hebrew can any of us tell you can unmute and speak what is mana means in Hebrew we're talking it means what is this maybe the food of angels yes uh elasha I understand that you all have been posting the questions can we make a note of these questions so that at the end during the discussion are we can answer these questions so that we will not miss on the flow of the class is that okay if I could answer your question at the end of the session okay mana I'm okay thank you thank you so class if you'll have any questions please make a note we can have the time of discussion at the end of 10 minutes of the class okay so back to the class so what does mana means yes the angels food thank you said the bread of heaven or some say corn of heaven and it's and also the the quails that was provided was the spiritual mean that God gave his children in the wilderness but this we will move on to the seventh point jethro's advice who was jethro exactly thank you good so we see jethro's advice in exodus chapter 18 one of the most uh you know uh advice that we could learn from this now moses were grown in the palace of egypt and moses knew how to govern his people and how how could one person govern an entire nation there the challenge was so moses father-in-law visited moses uh visited moses during this time and moses father-in-law was jethro and he was a priest in his own community knew that knew that moses been ministering to his people would be a great task because he saw people standing in a queue from morning till evening so jethro introduced moses to select capable men from among all the people who are look at the qualities that jethro recommends moses to select with to choose the men with the men who fear god was his first point men who fear god the second he says look out for trustworthy people and then the third he says who hates dishonest gain the men who hate dishonest gain and such men you appoint them as officers over thousand over hundreds over fifties and over tens and let them sit as judges over the people at all times and let them bring very important cases to you but decide very uh but uh they themselves decide very minor cases by themselves so it will be easier for moses to bear the burden if not it will burn him out on a longer period so this was a very valuable suggestion that jethro gives moses and moses receives receives it with all humility so what are the three can we summarize the three points that we could learn from jethro's advice to moses the first point was to teach others as a minister as a ministry leader we need to we need to have the ability to teach others the second point we learned from his advice is that a point others as officials over the people so that will lessen our burden and the third advice that we could learn is take only uh only the most difficult cases which only you can handle and rest you encourage or teach your officers or teach your ministry leaders to handle themselves so these are the three points that we can learn from from the advice of jethro with this we will move on to point eight the tenth commandments which has been recorded in exodus 20 chapter 1 to 17 is tenth commandments needed do we still need them what does tenth commandments denotes to us anyone in the class can answer they show us who god is the law is an expression of the law givers heart and character we must think about that before we say i don't care for the law or that was given in the olden days for the israelites and not for us the commandments not only show us what god wants us to do but they also show us what god is like they say something that his honor is worth his majesty they tell us what matters to god we can't disdain the law without disrespecting the law giver these laws set us apart from the worldly things as christians we are a kingdom of priest and a holy nation as peter says in 1 peter chapter 2 verse 9 we must be prepared to stand alone to look different and to have rules the world doesn't understand of course we aren't always the holy people as what we should be but that's what he has called us to be we need to strive to that it's not a difficult task the lord has blessed us the lord has put his holy spirit within us who will always teach us lead us and guide us towards the pathway of what god wants us to be in that's how we are that's how we should be we are his people god has chosen us just the way he has chosen moses he has set us apart to live according to god's way so that means that these commandments or these laws do not strip us from our freedom but instead it provides us we too often think of the 10 commandments as constraining us as if god's way will keep us in servitude and form realization our dream and reaching our potential we forget that god means to give us abundant life we see in john 10 ten which says i give you life in abundance and in john 832 we see god saying that i give you the true freedom i'm not here to take away the freedom but to give you the true freedom so in john 3 john chapter 5 verse 3 tells us is laws are not burdensome so with this we need to abide by the law the the command what god has asked us to keep in the new testament we see the two commandments what are they Jesus gives us can anyone unmute and speak love god and like your neighbor as yourself thank you lasha love your lord your god with all your heart with all your mind and with all your soul and love your neighbor as yourself this is what we need to be this should be our Christ likeness in us with this we will move on to the next point point nine the worship of the golden calf we see in chapter exodus chapter 32 as a reward for a service we see erin has been appointed when i mean erin has been appointed to take care of people as moses went on the mount sinai to receive the 10 commandments and and and the israelites who weighed down waiting for moses to come they grew impatient and it was very hard time for erin to manage them so according to exodus we see that you know the the israelites gathered around erin and and asked them to come up with the god who shall go before them we see that in exodus chapter 32 verse 1 they demand erin saying that come make us a god for us who shall go before us rather than remaining steadfast in faith and waiting for moses to come erin gives in to their pressure so he orders the people to collect the gold and in their possession and used it to create a golden calf for worship so whatever they see or they did in egypt they tried doing it here golden calf was one of the god that the egyptians worshiped and we see um you know when moses descended from mount sinai with the two stone tablets when he saw the very sight of the of that golden calf he fumed with anger he was so angry that he threw that stone tablets on that golden calf and he ordered 3 000 males to be put to death moses had to ascend mount sinai again to get the stone tablet the commandment again written by god once more with this we will move on to the 10th point the last point the shining face of moses we see in exodus 34 verse 29 to 35 when moses came down from mount sinai the two tablets of the testimony were in his hand and he came down from the mountain and as moses came down and the israelites looked up to him face to face and they noticed a shine a supernatural shine from his face his skin was shining and the israelites and including erin could not see moses face to face so when uh when moses shared the 10 commandment with the people and after that he had to cover his face with the veil so that you know because people could not look at him and talk so he had to he had to put a veil to cover his face with this we end these 10 events that we would like to share give it a class we see the shadow of christ in this book as the Passover lamp the jesus is the Passover lamp for us right now and it was a shadow which happened in the old testament in the book of egypt with this we will also have an assignment i will share the assignment with y'all give me a minute as i share the assignment with y'all we have two assignments okay please note down these questions i will also post it for you on the chat the first question is what are some leadership lessons we learn from the life of moses from this book and the second one is what are the 10 commandments relevant for us today how are the 10 commandments relevant for us today these are the two questions y'all can prepare your assignment and for genesis i'll give it to y'all next week in the next class so let's go into a time of discussion i've shared the question in the chat so those who are still writing can see the question from the chat and y'all can complete the question elijah said would god harden a person's heart and do salvation anyone in the class would like to answer elijah's question i would like to answer but yes jeffina i just want i don't know the reason but i just want to say that i don't think god will harden some hearts into salvation i just believe it it must be the character of ferro like he don't want to let go of the egyptian so god just took a step and hard hardened his heart so that he don't do that and it's written in the bible that i want to do a lot of miraculous things so i harden his heart so i believe that could be one of the reasons like god want to do some great things in the in that place so that he want to show that i'm here to do things for you i will save you and that's why he hardened he had a ferro and i believe there must be some reasons like why god chose ferro to harden hearts he could have chose someone else but he chose ferro i believe there must be some reason but i don't believe that god will harden someone heart from salvation because god is very closely broken hearted and he really came to set us free and give us salvation so my answer for the question is no thank you anyone else anyone else can i say something calling yes please yeah i would like to agree with the jeffina but at the same time disagree with her because as the bible says in exodus that god hardened the the heart of ferro i don't think that we can now disagree with what the lord himself is saying i think at times he can do his own will and does it for for as a way of preaching the gospel to others as a way of teaching others the lessons because i even say remember when his son jesus christ was here he said that god knows god gives me my ship i know my ship that means that there are those there are so many ship but there are some which are his and some which are not his but i it's not it's not up to me to judge but i think it is true god can harden somebody's heart thank you yes anyone else we see what the scripture says the scripture says what we learn from this situation is that god is in control of everything through the 10 plague we see that god was in control of the nature of the weather the things around everything including the human's heart yes we see that ferro was stubborn initial of the days and his heart was hardened but then god has control over the man as well he chooses he can he can make a person's heart hard and also he can make it soft the word of god says in john i'll just put the scripture john chapter six verse 44 john chapter six 44 it says no one can come did you all get that in the chat yeah no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and i will raise him up at the last days so when we talk about the salvation when we talk about reaching out to people there is a time and there is a season how god prepares a man and he calls him and only then he can repent and come no matter how hard he can make his heart hard towards not receiving jesus as a lord and savior but then god chooses to call people god jesus god chooses to strike his heart make his heart soft or make his heart heart that's why we need to pray for the unsaved loved ones that's why god asks us to minister to them the word as the power the word as the power to penetrate a person's heart and transform that heart lead them to god so the lord chooses whom we should but we have to do our work our part because that is what in the great commission god as jesus is given to each one of us to go share the gospel to the utmost part of the world and god prepares people's heart despite the challenges despite what they are god encounters them in a supernatural way he decides we also see divya has posted a verse this is from which book uh passage he grows three seven to eleven can you read divya yeah so it talks about uh uh warning against unbelief so as the holy spread says today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion during the time of testing in the wilderness where your ancestors tested and tried me though for 40 years they saw what i did that is why i was angry with the generation i said their hearts are always going astray and they have not known my way so i declared an oath in my anger they shall never enter my rest yeah and also we see i think in romans like people they are giving into immorality and god is just you know allowing them to do it because you're not understanding even though the nature shows the existence of god yeah still people do not understand yeah so god just gives them into their fleshly desires so i yeah bible speaks about that as well yeah thank you divya thank you lisha did that answer your question yes ma'am yes ma'am thank you divya i think you have brought a lot of clarification on the issue thank you okay okay as time is up we can end the session with a word of prayer before we could go with the other questions and i would encourage everyone to please post your questions and we can discuss this in the 10 minutes of the next class okay so i see john paul as opposed to three questions and also jeffina okay jeffina's question was to do with regard to the assignment any other questions yeah isek has got a question we can discuss on this much later as as we go ahead with our course okay but we will keep a note of these questions and we can discuss in the class because these questions will benefit all of us okay so today as the time is up let's end this class with a word of prayer dear god we thank you we praise you for who you are in midst of us you are a god our lord who leads us who guides us who has delivered us from every affliction you are a god who sees us who hears our voice hears our cry time and again and you are leading us lord we thank you for the freedom that you have given us thank you for the liberty in our life for lord from every situation every circumstance that we go through because your word says that we are more than overcomer thank you lord that you are a god you have set us apart and you are preparing us as your holy people as your as your priest lord thank you for every promise that you have have revealed to us personally to each one of us and you have called us and as per your promise lord that you will never leave us no forsakers but you will be with us you will lead us you are the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and you are the god of us thank you for who you are in our life lord that you are the same god who said to Moses tell the Israelites I am who I am and you are the same god who is with us the same I am thank you lord you are a god our promise keeper we love you we honor you we respect you we surrender ourselves to you we pray that you will help us to do everything that pleases you in our life lord thank you father thank you for everything thank you for your faithfulness in our life in Jesus name we pray amen amen thank you so much thank you thank you so much for joining in today's session we will study on the next book leviticus in the next class please come to the class prepared go through your notes go through every scripture in the bible every events the main events so that we can discuss in the class thank you god bless ma'am when you have to submit the assignment