{"id":1816,"date":"2012-03-05T05:35:09","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T10:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godonomics\/?p=1816"},"modified":"2012-03-08T16:19:41","modified_gmt":"2012-03-08T21:19:41","slug":"fast-track-bible-read-the-bible-in-one-month-part-3-of-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2012\/03\/fast-track-bible-read-the-bible-in-one-month-part-3-of-24.html","title":{"rendered":"Fast Track: Read The Bible in One Month (Part 3 of 24)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Israel (Jacob) loved his family dearly, but he showed favoritism toward his son Joseph, much to the frustration of the other eleven.\u00a0He gave Joseph a beautiful multicolored coat. Joseph’s brothers ambushed him in the fields one day, sold him to\u00a0Egyptian merchants as a slave, and deceived their father into believing his favorite son had been killed. Meanwhile,\u00a0Joseph was sold to an Egyptian named Potiphar, in whose house he performed well as a slave. After Joseph\u00a0rebuffed Potiphar’s wife’s advances, she accused Joseph of attacking her and had him thrown into an Egyptian\u00a0prison. In prison, God was with Joseph as he interpreted the dreams of the Pharaoh’s taster and baker who were\u00a0imprisoned with him.\"\"<\/a>
\nDuring the difficult ups and downs of Joseph’s time in Egypt, God was there — reminding him to trust, even\u00a0during the difficult times in prison. God’s presence brought Joseph peace and comfort. A few years later, the\u00a0Pharaoh had a dream about seven fat cows being eaten by seven skinny cows. He called his wise men to provide\u00a0an interpretation, but had no luck. One of the men in his court remembered being in prison with Joseph, who had interpreted dreams\u00a0earlier. Joseph was called from prison to explain the dream. He told the Pharaoh that the God of Abraham was warning that there\u00a0would be seven years of great crops followed by seven years of famine. Joseph recommended a national savings plan to store up grain\u00a0for the coming famine. Pharaoh was so impressed that he elevated Joseph to second-in-command of the Egyptian empire.\u00a0The seven years went by, the food was stored up, and then the famine struck, just as predicted. Its devastation was felt back in\u00a0Israel’s fields where Joseph’s father (Israel) and brothers still resided. Israel sent his sons to Egypt to find food before the family\u00a0starved. Little did the brothers know that their “dead” brother was now in charge of the known world.\u00a0 Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn’t recognize him. Through a series of “tests,” Joseph determined whether they had learned to trust God, or if they were still corrupt. They eventually passed the tests and brought his younger brother, Benjamin, and his father to Egypt. The family secret was brought to light when Joseph revealed his true identity, hugged his father, and forgave his brothers. He gave them his secret to trusting God those many years, saying, “What you intended for evil, God used for good.”\u00a0 The entire family and budding nation of Israel moved to Egypt to experience the joy of living under the wise and gentle leadership
\nof Joseph. Genesis ends with Israel’s death and a renewed commitment to forgiveness. Eventually, Joseph died.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The book of Exodus begins. The old Pharaoh who knew Joseph died, and his legacy died with him. The new king of Egypt didn’t\u00a0remember Joseph or his empire-saving work, and enslaved the Israelite descendants of Jacob. They were enslaved to keep them under
\ncontrol, providing a plentiful workforce for government projects.\u00a0Jacob\/Israel’s descendents were enslaved in Egypt for 400 years performing hard labor. They prayed and cried out for a deliverer\u00a0that entire time. God answered their prayers when a young boy named Moses was born. Moses had to be hidden from the Pharaoh,\u00a0who was killing young Hebrew children as a means of population control. Moses’ parents placed their baby in a basket and pushed him\u00a0out into the Nile River, hoping that God would save him from death. Pharaoh’s daughter found Moses and raised him in the Egyptian\u00a0society until he was around forty years old. As he matured, Moses saw his people abused in slavery and decided to be their deliverer. In\u00a0anger, he struck out at one of the Egyptian guards and killed him. The people rejected Moses’ leadership, and he went on the run from\u00a0the Egyptian militia.<\/p>\n

Moses hid in fear, out in the wilderness in Midian for 40 years, where he married Zipporah. Moses learned about leadership and\u00a0business in the fields of his father-in-law, Jethro. One day, while Moses was tending sheep, God appeared to him in\u00a0a burning bush. God told Moses that He had heard the people’s call for delivery from slavery. God wanted Moses\u00a0to be His delivery man. Moses told God, “I don’t deliver!” and “I don’t even speak in public due to my stuttering\u00a0problem.” God showed Moses several miracles and asked the familiar refrain, “Will you trust Me?” Moses agreed\u00a0and headed to the Pharaoh, demanding that he “deliver” God’s people. God taught His people how to trust, one miracle at a time. Moses’ staff turned into a snake, but Pharaoh was\u00a0unimpressed. God then turned up the heat, sending ten plagues (which were miraculous judgments) against\u00a0Pharaoh to change his mind and free the Israelite people. Each plague was aimed at one of the Egyptian gods, to\u00a0prove that there’s only one true God. Pharaoh refused to recognize God despite the darkness, the frogs, the boils, the blood, and\u00a0eventually the death of his own firstborn child.<\/p>\n

The tenth plague required an act of trust. God told His peop\"\"<\/a>le to take a perfect lamb, sacrifice it, and put the blood over the door\u00a0so that this plague would “pass over” every house with blood on the door. God had formulated a way for His people to be rescued\u00a0from pain and judgment. Many Egyptians decided to trust God, so they too painted blood on their doors, trusting God for deliverance\u00a0from judgment. This blood on the door may seem primitive and gruesome and perhaps a little weird. Why would God institute such a\u00a0strange ritual? \u00a0He was using this as an object lesson for His people in order to teach them that something needed to die in their place.\u00a0God was teaching them to depend on something besides themselves to achieve a right standing with Him.\u00a0The Pharaoh didn’t trust God and lost his own son that night. He decided to let God’s people go, only to chase them down soon\u00a0thereafter. Pharaoh cornered the Israelites at the Red Sea. Moses trusted God, raised his staff and saw the mighty waters of the Red Sea\u00a0part, opening a path for deliverance. Pharaoh chased after them and God allowed the waters to come together,\u00a0drowning the army.<\/p>\n

Now that God’s people had “exited” out of Egypt, He taught them how to trust Him. He gave them bread\u00a0every morning. This bread was called manna, which literally means, “What is it?” God asked His people to collect\u00a0enough bread for one day at a time, so that they would learn to trust God daily. This object lesson worked for a\u00a0while, but all too often the people grumbled and complained rather than trusting.\u00a0When water became scarce, the people complained and begged Moses to take them back to Egypt. God\u00a0instead provided a giant fountain of water to quench their thirst. Moses then went up on Mt. Sinai to receive God’s\u00a0commandments on how to live a life characterized by loving God and others.<\/p>\n

While he was gone, Moses left Aaron in charge to remind the people to pray and trust God. Moses was gone for a long time. How\u00a0long? Long enough for the people to melt down their earrings and watch Aaron fashion a golden calf from the metal. The people\u00a0began to worship the statue and gave it credit for delivering them from Egypt.\u00a0Moses finally came down from the mountain and saw the people not trusting God. They were breaking many of the\u00a0commandments just handed down: Do not have any other gods but me. Do not make statues of idols. Do not lie, steal, or commit\u00a0adultery. Do not covet or use God’s name in vain. Honor your parents and keep the Sabbath holy. These laws show mankind what an\u00a0obedient\/trustworthy life looks like. Ironically, it also showed them how far short they fell from living obediently.\u00a0Moses taught the people how to seek God for forgiveness. He also received instructions on how to make a tabernacle for worship\u00a0and steps for offering various sacrifices for forgiveness. God outlined the blueprints for making the Ark of the Covenant and told\u00a0Moses which duties the priests would perform. The Ark of the Covenant was a portable box overlaid with gold that contained the\u00a0tablets with the Ten Commandments, symbolizing the presence of God. The most important part of the Ark was the mercy seat, a\u00a0section on top that made a way for God’s people to find forgiveness.<\/p>\n

The book of Exodus reached its climax as the God of the heavens, who cannot be contained in our universe, chose to live among His people in this tabernacle. God’s glory, which means the full weight of His greatness, came down and resided in the tabernacle.\u00a0 God was now close enough to experience. He appeared to His people in a pillar of fire and cloud. The people were given the same choice that we all have today: “Will we trust Him to be our leader and forgiver?”<\/p>\n

Here is a live teaching of Fast Track: Genesis-Exodus<\/p>\n