BSF Moses 2014-15 – Page 11 – The Notes are Good

04.2 Moses 4, Day 2

One of our questions today asked if the request of Pharaoh made by Moses and Aaron was reasonable? That is a very interesting question on a lot of levels. If the goal was to free the Israelite people from bondage, is it deception to ask for a 3-day pass?

But I believe, like everything else in the bible, this is here for a purpose. Let’s look deeper.

1. There was no law against worship. Egypt didn’t have a state religion, in fact the Egyptians worshiped many different gods and had feasts and feast days for many of them. Everything from the sun god to the god of the Nile, the frog god and the god of flies. They lacked not for gods and temples to worship them. So it was not unprecedented for people to worship.

2. Pharaoh had the authority to grant the request. As is evident later in Exodus 5, the slave drivers took their orders from Pharaoh. He gave the quotas and provided the raw materials for their work. He was the one in charge and the only one in Egypt with authority to grant this request.

3. It was not an ongoing or outlandish request. They were not asking for a stop to labor or a 50% reduction in work. They weren’t asking to go to work for Egypt’s competitors. They weren’t asking for major, ongoing concessions, just a respite for worship.

I think this is here so we can truly see Pharaoh’s heart and his view of the Israelite workers. If this request and response weren’t here, then we wouldn’t know. We may have thought that, while slavery is never good, but maybe things weren’t so bad. Maybe if they had just worked with Pharaoh he would have been supportive. Maybe if presented with the option, Pharaoh would have chosen God.

But, here we see the truth. Pharaoh didn’t know the Lord nor did he want to. Pharaoh did not care about the Hebrews. To Pharaoh, they were a resource. They were machines in the production or buildings. They were slaves. They weren’t people.

But to God, they were people. They would be His people and He would be their God.

My Answers:

3.
a.
The sacrifices they would offer to the Lord would be detestable to the Egyptians and they would stone the Israelites

b.
Yes, they did not ask for Pharaoh to free the Egyptians, just to give them the opportunity to worship God by holding a festival in the wilderness a 3 day journey

c.
I do not know the Lord – why are you taking them from their labor, get back to work, they are numerous (i.e., it would be a major impact to productivity to shut down for 3 days)

4.
a.
Slave drivers were Egyptians, Forement (overseers) were Hebrews

b.
They were taking the brunt of the punishment and blame, they were being beaten, they were in a position of authority and honor (better to be foreman than making the bricks). They are “part of management”

03.5 Moses 3, Day 5

If you are relying on God, leave your baggage at home

One of our questions was how Moses prepared for the trip back to Egypt. On the surface, this looks like a very simple question. But, it actually is much deeper. At first blush we think, Moses packed up and left. But that isn’t the case.

First, let’s compare to Moses and Jacob and their return from running away from home in fear of their lives. Jacob was away from home for 20 years and he returns with wives and children and donkeys and servants and flocks and gifts. Moses is gone for 40 years and returns with a donkey, a wife, 2 sons and a stick.

But their purpose in returning was very different. Jacob was returning to make a home. Moses was returning to lead the people out. Moses didn’t pack up. He just left. He took himself and his family and submitted to God and put his future in God’s hands.

But as important as what Moses didn’t take, let’s look at what he did drag along on the trip. Moses had a burning bush moment. He was called by God, by name, and given a specific commandment, “Go.” He went, but he brought along un-repented and un-corrected sin. Moses knew the commandment that all male son’s of Abraham were to be circumcised as a covenant to God. Moses’ sons were clearly sons of Abraham, both their father and mother descended from Abraham. Evidently one of Moses’ sons had been circumcised, so ignorance or lack of ability could not be argued either. Simply, Moses had decided not to give one of his sons to God. He had held him away from God, not giving God what was His.

Some commentators will lay the blame on Moses’ wife. And the fact of the matter is that there is simply not enough information in these verses to draw firm conclusions. But I don’t think this was Zipporah’s issue. It doesn’t same God set out to kill Zipporah. God’s anger was at Moses.

Moses received a calling and gave all the outward signs that he was putting his full faith and obedience in God, but he wasn’t. He was still carrying with him this un-corrected sin, this act of rebellion against God.

Zipporah, Moses’ wife, saw what was happening and took the initiative to remove the uninvited guest on the journey, this un-corrected sin. She took the physical embodiment of this rebellion and placed it under Moses’ heel. Through the blood of her son she renewed her marriage vow to Moses and saved him from God’s wrath.

If you are a christian you have been called. When God invited you to accept Jesus in your heart, you, too, had a burning bush moment, an encounter with God. If you have accepted that gift and you accept to walk with God and trust in Him and obey Him then you, too, need to dump the baggage of un-repented and un-corrected sin. God does not expect us to be perfect (yet), but he does expect us to cut ties with our old ways.

What do you need to remove from your journey with God? Sinful pictures, inappropriate media, connections with sinful friends, bad language? What do you need to throw out, erase, crush, or burn? What are you dragging along that should have been left behind?

If you don’t know what those things might be, then ask someone who loves you. The baggage that we carry and try to hide is normally very evident to those who love us and love God. Will it be pleasant or easy? Maybe not. But if you continue to walk with God there will be a time that God demands it go or you go. God is not in the business of caring for your un-repented and un-corrected sin. He is in the business of caring for you.

And when you do let it go, look at what happens. We find the amazing answer in 3 words in Exodus 4:31. Moses and Aaron told and showed all that they were commanded to do to the elders of Israel. Moses and Aaron obeyed God by showing these things to the elders, “AND THEY BELIEVED.” Don’t miss that. When do you think the last time was that the elders of Israel believed? “They bowed down and worshiped God.” These are men who may not have fully believed their entire lives. Moses was 80. When he was born they were already in horrible bondage. But in one day, in one conveyance of the word of God and the hope it brings, “they believed.”

My Answers:

8.
Sought approval of Jethro. Took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey took the staff of God in his hand and started back to Egypt

9.
‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’”

10.
a.
Failed to circumcise his son

b.
Zipporah, his wife

c.
What un-corrected sin do I still carry even after all these years of being called to follow Christ?

11.
He was obedient and brave. This was a man who was a slave and left Egypt to meet with Moses. Slaves don’t just up and leave.

12.
Moses told Aaron EVERYTHING. They together brought the elders together and told them EVERYTHING the Lord had said and performed the signs. “AND THEY BELIEVED”

03.4 Moses 3, Day 4

Insecurity, Inadequacy and Fear

Insecurity, Inadequacy and Fear are three of the top 10 barriers that those of us called to serve the Lord allow to stand in the way of serving Him fully and whole heartedly. Some will read the verses in our study today and see an impertinent or obstinate Moses. But I think this is far deeper and more meaningful.

When we stand in the presence of God we will speak the truth. Scripture tells us that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

I think what we see is Moses revealing his heart and soul layer by layer in the presence of a loving and patient God. Yesterday we discussed the first 2 barriers. I don’t know who I am and I don’t know who you are, God. God addressed those. Now we move deeper past the surface.

1. I am insecure. What if they don’t believe me? What if I lay myself out in front of them and they reject me? God answers this by making Moses more secure and teaching him about God’s plan. God shows him how to perform miraculous signs. He doesn’t just tell him these signs, He allows Moses to practice the signs and to experience there impact first hand. He teaches Moses what he is to do and enlightens him that they may not believe the first sign or the second sign and they may not listen to Moses, but they will believe the third.

2. I am inadequate. I am not eloquent. I am slow of speech. What if I don’t have the words to convince them? What if I don’t know what to say or how to say it? God patiently reminds him not of Moses power but of Gods. Who made it so men can speak? This is not a barrier, because it is not a barrier to God. God tells him again, “now, go” and reminds him that God will not only help him speak but actually teach him the very words to say.

3. I am afraid. No one likes to admit we are afraid, but we all experience fear and it can paralyze us. I believe Moses’ final request, that God send someone else, is an expression of his fear. And how does God address this? In two ways. First, if you are going to have fear in your life, let it be a reasonable fear of the Lord. God’s anger burned against Moses. The shift from petty fears to righteous fear that Moses must have experienced at that moment must have been palpable. But God did not use fear to be the motivation for Moses to obey. This is very important. God revealed Moses’ fear for what it was in comparison to the fear of God, but He didn’t leave Moses with something to move away from, He gave Moses something to look forward to. The conversation between God and Moses reveals that Moses and Aaron knew each other as brothers. Moses knew that Aaron could speak well. Moses had been away for 40 years, away from home and family, and God overcomes his fear with a promise of hope and love and reuniting. He tells Moses that Aaron is already on his way to meet him. (Don’t miss that. God didn’t yield to Moses’ fear, he had sent Aaron on his way before this conversation happened.)

God helps and is patient of us in exactly the same way. He overcomes our feelings of insecurity and inadequacy. He overcomes our fear with hope and love and reuniting. He has given us the promise of a promised land that makes the land of Canaan look like a wasteland. He has given us a promise of his presence that makes the pillar of fire look like a flashlight with weak batteries.

Like Moses, He has given us a sign and a promise: when our mission here on earth is done we shall return to a holy place to worship Him.

My Answers:

7.
a.
1. What if they don’t believe me or listen to me?
2. Pardon, I have never been eloquent… I am slow of speech and tongue.
3. Pardon, Please send someone else

b.
v2-9 foresight into miraculous signs
v11-12. who gave human beings their mouths?… Now, go; I will help you speak and teach you what to say
14-17. The Lord’s anger burned against Moses – gave him helper, Aaron

c.
I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to offend. I’m not the right person. I’m too sinful to be believed. I’m not holy enough. God has been patient with me, taught me, and has taken up residence in my heart.

03.3 Moses 3, Day 3

Who am I? Who are you?

Moses first 2 objections speak volumes to where he was at this stage of his life. He is about 80 years old. He has lived 2 very different lives, in Egypt and in Midian. He has been adopted into a new family twice. But, truly he has no idea who he is and he also doesn’t know God.

But neither of those matter for God to call Moses to this assignment to go and bring out. Even though Moses doesn’t know who Moses is, God does. God knows not only the man he is today, but the prophet he will become. God knows his strengths and weaknesses and that none of those matter. We particularly see this in the way God answers Moses’ first question about himself. He answers it by not answering it. Who Moses is makes absolutely no difference. It is irrelevant. All that matters is that God is with him.

God knows that over time Moses will grow to rely on God’s strength which has no weakness. And even though Moses does not yet know God, God knows that he will. As Moses stands and teaches others about God and tells them the word of God and as he walks with God every day, that knowledge will come.

The name that God gives Moses in this introduction is deep and profound. Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh in Hebrew. Translators struggle to write this in English. English is a language with 3 primary tenses, past, present and future. Everything we say and write falls into one of those tenses. I did. I am doing. I will do. But Hebrew isn’t constrained by the same tenses. In Hebrew the 2 primary tenses are perfect and imperfect. Basically these translate into finished or completed and in progress or ongoing. I use the analogy of the book is open and the story continues or it is closed and the story is ended to explain imperfect and perfect. This statement, this name of God, is in the imperfect. In this case it simultaneously says I was, I am, I will be, I have been and I continue to be. In other words, God, in this name, introduces himself as I have existed, I do exist and I will exist all at the same time.

Isn’t this what all people who first are introduced to God question and want answered? Is God real? Does God really exist? We inherently recognize that most of the gods people spend their times worshiping by their actions and hearts are not real, they don’t exist. But when we encounter God, we recognize something is different.

God answers this question by Moses with simple but profound clarity – I exist, I am real.

Additional Note:

In Hebrew the names of God do not contain vowels, e.g., YHWH. So this name of God is Ehyeh, or HYH, which is also pronounced Hi-Yah. It made me chuckle to think of what a major Hiyah kick Moses received on this day in this encounter with God!

My Answers:

5.
a.
1. Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?
2. Suppose I go to the Israelites and… they ask me, “what is his name?” Then what shall I thell them?

b.
v12. I will be with you, this will be a sign – return and worship God on this mountain
v. 14-22 I am who I am, I am has sent me to you, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob sent me, then assemble the elders and lay out the entire plan

c.
The second is powerful because it demonstrate God’s omniscience, but the more encouraging to me is the fact that God is with me and that the best and greatest sign is that through any mission or trial I will return to a place to worship Him.

6.
a.
One in Hebrew the other in Greek. One is voice of God in spirit in a burning bush saying Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh, the other is Jesus saying of himself, ego eimi. Both translate into the same name of God: I Am.

b.
Jesus is and always has been God. John 1:3 – Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

03.2 Moses 3, Day 2

Holy Ground

The angel of the Lord, God, appears to Moses in a fire in a bush on Mount Horeb. Those are the facts. But there is so much more in this short passage.

1. Moses approached the burning bush as an item of curiosity. It was not the expected. The bush burned but was not consumed. God creates He doesn’t consume. But rather than see the divine spirit of God in the bush, Moses wanted to simply quench his own curiosity. Moses said to himself, “I will go over and see this strange sight.” But God is not just an item of curiosity or an oddity. He is God. He is living and holy. He told Moses to stop and not come any closer. The bush was a manifestation of God, but the object of attention was not the manifestation, it was God. How often do people today have curiosity for and desire to have the trappings of church, the fellowship, the support, the songs and joy… just without God?

2. God appears to Moses at a time that he is alone and calls him by name. “Moses, Moses”. When God calls us it is a personal connection. It may be when we are alone or it may be when we are in a large group, but regardless of how many other sheep are present, God calls us by name to convey the personal invitation that he has for us.

3. God instructed Moses to take off his shoes because this is holy ground. First, what made it holy? God was present in this place. Any place that God is present is a holy place and one to be approached with reverence and care and respect. Is God in your heart? If so do you treat it as a holy place? Is God in your relationship with your spouse and your children? Is God in your house? Is God in your life? If so, do you see these as special, holy, set apart? Second. Why take off his shoes? Some will say it was a proper sign of respect. The sandals of a shepherd would have been dirty, dusty and he would have stepped in any matter of unpleasant things. I buy this, except, they were sandals. It is hard to argue his feet were any cleaner. I think it goes back to the relationship God wants to have with us. God wants to connect with us. God wants us to be family with Him and to live in His home. Yes, it is a sign of respect, but I think it is also a “kick your shoes off this is where you belong” message as well.

4. Since the fall of man, our first response to standing in the presence of God has been the same: we hide. When we see God, we also know that He sees us and we have utmost clarity of our sin. In the light of God’s perfection, we see our own imperfection and recognize what should happen to us. We are simultaneously awed by His beauty and disgusted by our sin. We rightly fall to our knees and we are afraid.

5. As Moses hid, God lays out his plan. Moses is nothing more than a bit player in this production. Moses is an extra on the set. God has seen, God has heard, God is concerned, God has come down, God will rescue them, God will bring them up out of that land, God will take them to a land of milk and honey, God has been reached by the cry of Israel, God has seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing, God is sending Moses to Pharaoh to bring God’s people out of Egypt. But barefoot, hiding Moses is hearing God, but he is seeing only Moses. The one thing God has called Moses to do is “go”. Moses knows how to go. Moses even knows the way out of Egypt. He took that journey 40 years before.

Our objective is to know and serve God. That means looking deeper than the surface to really see the attributes of God present in the story.

My Answers:

3.
a.
1. to get his attention 2. to show that God does not consume 3. to provide a visible presence for Moses to show that God was with him

b.
The presence of God

c.
This was holy ground. Anywhere God is present becomes a holy place. God’s heart was for a personal and deep relationship with Moses, a “kick your shoes off, you are home” relationship

d.
The preincarnate Jesus Christ

4.
a.
Moses, I have heard, seen and felt concern for my chosen people in Egypt and I am going to free them; Now, go and bring them out.

b.
Hears, sees and feel concerned. God saves and provides more than we even desire

02.5 Moses 2, Day 5

God has already laid the foundation

I have a good friend and brother in Christ who is a builder. Throughout the summer we met once a week for a bible study at a local coffee shop. One morning we were having coffee and discussing the roadwork going on outside the restaurant. I was commenting, in frustration, about how long it seemed to be taking. He explained to me the need for concrete to cure. He said that when his crews pour a driveway it takes about a week for the concrete to dry and cure all the way through. The concrete the road crew was using was about 18″ thick and he explained it would take 4 full weeks for it to cure properly. Like baking bread, the outside will harden first, but it takes time for the center to be finished as well. Allowing traffic on it too soon, especially heavy trucks, could ruin it and they would have to tear it out and start over.

I was reminded of this as we read about the Hebrews calling out to God in their slavery. Like my ability to see the road, they saw God and knew his promises, but their patience was thin. But 80 years prior, God had poured the foundation of salvation for the hebrews in Egypt. At the marriage of Amram and Jochebed, God had dug the footings and began to lay in the reinforcement iron. At the birth of Moses, the path was poured. 80 years would be required for Moses to grow solid throughout and become the prophet God had designed him to be.

In the same way, when Jesus was born into this world, the foundation of salvation for us was poured. Jesus is our “highway to heaven”. We will and should groan out to God in our bondage to sin, but Jesus’ payment has set us free. One day the waiting will be over and Jesus will come again. One day, the hazard cones and detours will all be removed and we, either still living or asleep in the grave, will rise up and go out to meet his triumphant return. One glad morning…

In the mean time, God does not forget. When it says God remembered, it doesn’t mean He had forgotten and needed the Hebrews to remind Him. It means, they called on Him to remember and He did, He had and He always would. God does not forget His people. God does not forget His promises. God remembered then and He remembers now!

My Answers:

10.
a.
king of Egypt died, Israelites continued to be oppressed in slavery

b.
groaned in their slavery and cried out to God

11.
a.
Heard, Remembered, Looked on, was Concerned about

b.
Loving, engaged, true, consistent

c.
Yes, absolutely – IF I pray and wait for God, I have that assurance. If I take it on my own and then run and hide, God waits for me.

02.4 Moses 2, Day 4

Become a Foreigner

Exodus 2:23 describes this time as a “long period”. Things were not good no matter who you were or where you were. It was a dark period of time.

The Hebrews continued to be oppressed. The King of Egypt died, but things did not improve for them. If anything, they probably got worse. Relationships between the shepherds and Moses new family would not have improved. Moses was no longer welcome in Egypt or by his people in bondage in Egypt.

But Moses had a son and in that son he was reminded of hope.

This long period of despair would pass. This inability to do something meaningful with his life would not last forever. Moses was not going to settle in this land of darkness and despair. The birth of his son reminded him that he was a foreigner in this “long period”. This was not where he belonged. This was not how things were meant to be. This was not the extent of God’s plan for Moses or the Hebrews or Egypt or the world.

When you go through a “long period” of darkness do you begin to accept and settle? When you look around and feel powerless, do you give up hope and accept this is just how things are always going to be? We, like Moses, must remind ourselves this is not the extent of God’s plan. This broken, messed up world is not how things are always going to be. God has promised much, much, much more. We are called to become foreigners in a foreign land, not people who settle in darkness and despair. We are walking through the valley of death, not moving in as permanent residents.

I believe that every time Moses called out the name of his son, he renewed his confidence in hope and confidence in God. We can do the same each time we call out the name of God’s son, Jesus.

My Answers:

8.
He didn’t have anywhere else to go. He was invited into a family.

9.
a.
It was not home – lived as a foreigner in a foreign land

b.
when I recognize how my views and life differ so significantly to those around me. My practice of serving and honoring God as opposed to serving and honoring self.

c.
That I am to live as a missionary here on earth because my real home is in heaven

d.
Patience, shepherding, joined the family of a priest with 7 daughters. To learn that it was not about him – it is about God!

02.3 Moses 2, Day 3

Bold Compassion

When things went south at home, Moses went east. Moses ran and hid. But the person he was running and hiding from was no ordinary person. This was Pharaoh and the reach of Pharaohs power was great. From the research I did on maps, when Moses left his home on the Nile river and fled to Midian he would have traveled over 600 KM or 375 miles if he went a straight route. Given that he was on the run and that a straight path would take him directly across vast deserts, it is unlikely he took anything resembling a straight path. A direct path walking would have taken 2-3 weeks and a more circuitous route could have stretched to more than a month.

When he sits at the well in Midian he would have been tired, hungry, weary, lonely, weak and emotionally spent. But when he saw injustice, he could not sit by and do nothing. Fortunately, his weeks of travel had taught him some constraint and he didn’t seek to avenge the 7 girls, he only stepped in to the extent to remove them from imminent harm. No one was killed. More so, he had now taken on a spirit of not simply trying to “fix” the situation, but to serve those in need. He didn’t stop with running off the shepherds, he drew the water, the cared for the women and their animals and he sought nothing in return (not even dinner).

There were so many excuses Moses could have given for avoiding the conflict. He was tired, this was not his fight. But despite all the possible excuses Moses burned with a fire of compassion for the oppressed and persecuted and that fire burning in him was creating a spirit of serving.

Do I burn with that same passion and spirit the way Moses did? Am I bold in protecting others from immediate danger or do I hide behind my excuses? When I am bold and step in to help, do I expect recognition and to be served as compensations or do I go the distance and share the water of life to those who are thirsty?

My Answers:

6.
Not Egypt, Outside of Pharaoh’s daily purview, Desert, had wells with water (not totally barren), flocks lived there

7.
a.
Compassion, strength, hard work, bravery, boldness

b.
He still stepped in when he saw grievous wrongs of persecution and oppression, but he didn’t kill anyone

c.
To be bold. To have the spirit of serving others burn in me.

02.2 Moses 2, Day 2

Tourist

Acts 7:23 says, “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites.”

I think one of the key words in that verse is the word “visit”. He didn’t go to live. He didn’t go to support or to serve. He went to visit. This may be one of the first recorded instances of what we often call “mission tourism”.

How often do we, as modern day Christians, fall into the same traps Moses did? We go on a visit, either to the inner city or another country. We go to be with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We go because we have been blessed with so much. We go to feel better about ourselves and what we possess.

Just like Moses.

And when we see the persecution and oppression, we, in our superior wisdom, take it upon ourselves to do something, to take action. We decide we must fix things. And, like Moses, we simply make things worse.

God does call us to reach out to our brothers and sisters wherever they are. The examples set by the early church to go and make disciples are still relevant. The fellowship of support between churches in different areas and situations is documented throughout the epistles. But we must do it with respect and understanding. If we swoop in, with an attitude of superiority and an expectation of gratitude, we too will be asked, “who are you?”

But if we come along side our “own people”, fellow believers in Christ, and we share in their burdens and support them and give them aid and encouragement and build long term lasting relationships and teach others and build influence for them, then, we won’t be asked “who are you?” because they will see Christ in us.

My Answers:

3.
a.
“He looked this way and that and seeing no one”

b.
40 years old. Decided to visit his own people the Israelites. Killed to avenge. Thought his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not

c.
Prophecy, teaching by his parents – clearly Moses had education outside of what was taught in the Egyptian schools about God, His promises and covenants

4.
a.
Choice to identify with them. He decided to visit his own people

b.
He grew to know that he was not Egyptian, that he was adopted, that his birth parents were Hebrew

c.
Choice to visit did not cost him, choice to act on his own and murder cost him his home, eduction, adopted family, power

d.
Would you rather have 1 marshmallow now or 2 marshmallows in 3 minutes? how about 1 now and 20 in 3 minutes? what if the one now was plain, but the ones to come were coated in chocolate and everything yummy? That was moses choice.

5.
a.
Wanted to help, wanted to rescue, He was strong, brave, bold, not afraid to act, identified with an oppressed people

b.
lack of patience, eagerness to rely on his own strength, can’t go around killing people

01.5 Moses 1, Day 5

Denial of Pharaoh’s plan by his daughter in the Nile (da’ Nile)

Sometimes it seems like God is just showing off. This is one of those times.

A prophet born in a time where all boy births were illegal.
The one through which God would write the laws and the first 5 books of the bible, was afloat in a basket of papyrus, the material used to make the scrolls on which Pharaohs laws had been written.
Nursed through infancy with payment to his mother from Pharaoh’s own treasury
Raised in Pharaoh’s own house, trained by his trainers, protected by his guards, fed his food
Raised by Pharaoh’s own daughter in collusion with her servants, who were on his payroll in his house.
And, I may be dense, but if you are an evil dad and you’ve decreed that all Hebrew baby boys are thrown in the river and one day your daughter who hasn’t been pregnant shows up with a baby boy whose name translates into “I drew him out of the water”… You shouldn’t need to buy a vowel to solve that puzzle.

But with all of these outlandish events, it is also important to notice the small and almost mundane ways that God moved. Jochebed “saw” that Moses “was a fine child” (Ex 2:2). His sister stood at a distance to keep watch (Ex 2:4). Pharaoh’s daughter “saw the basket”, “saw the baby”, she “heard him cry” and she “felt sorry for him.” (Ex 2:5-6)

As we await the promise of God of the second coming of Jesus Christ we continue to see God’s hand. Sometimes we see Him in grandiose ways, but more often in small and almost mundane ways in our daily lives. We see little things. We stand at a distance and keep watch. We hear. And, probably most frequently, we feel God moving in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. Yes, you should test those things in your life against the word of scripture, but don’t live in denial of the fact that, if you have accepted Jesus Christ into your heart (and even if you haven’t), He is in control and moving in your life.

p.s., (I couldn’t resist getting that one last “da nile” of the fact in there)

My Answers:

11.
a.
Kept him hidden for 3 months, safe in Nile (no animals, no drowning), spotted by Pharaoh’s daughter first, he cried she felt sorry, knew what he was , Miriam asked for the sale, raised by his family, adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter

b.
Circumcision. Also, what other boy baby would be alone in the Nile river?

c.
vigilance, boldness, faithfulness, trust, ability to ask for the sale

12.
a.
Nursed, nurtured, bonded

b.
wealth, education, privilege, power, confidence, health, food, nurturing, strength, speech, action

c.
wealth, education, privilege, power, confidence, health, food, nurturing, strength, speech, action, love, training in God and how to live as a Christian, examples of how to serve

d.
Through the worst of hardships, God’s hand is present and guiding all into place. Even in a hopeless situation (placing your baby in the river), God is faithful and true