Exodus: The Beginnings of a Nation

The book of Genesis closes with the  record of Joseph and his family in Egypt due to the famine in Canaan (Ex 1:5). The book of  Exodus opens, not with a family but a nation. God  had already fulfilled the first part of His Promise to Abraham.   God promised Abraham that He would make him a great nation and make his name exceedingly great (Gen 12:2). When faced with doubt and despair concerning who would be his heir, Abraham was commanded by God to look at the stars and try to number them. “So shall your seed be”, God promised (Gen 15:5). Ex 1:7 records the extent of their greatness. The family of 70 had grown into a nation numbering millions because God fulfilled His Promise to Abraham.

However, trouble was on the horizon. Joseph, his father and brothers and all that generation passed away and there came a time when a new king rose to power in Egypt, one who had no remembrance of Joseph. The Bible does not record the length of time that passed before this new Pharoah came to power or the reasons surrounding the Egyptian royal dynasty’s forgetfulness of Joseph’s benevolent rule.  Perhaps, it was because the nation of Israel at its zenith had themselves forgotten how they came to be in Egypt. Maybe they got too comfortable in Egypt, forgetting that their inheritance was not to be in that land, but rather in Canaan. They were a powerful, blessed and great nation but God’s entire Promise was not yet fulfilled. God desired that they should have their own land and that He would be their King, not a Pharoah. Sometimes, God’s Plan for us is different from our own. He  has a better plan and will intervene in mysterious ways to accomplish His Will. Joseph understood that the destiny of his people was not to be in Egypt, favourable though the conditions may have been. In a prophetic utterance before his death, he asked that his bones be carried to Canaan when God visited His people to fulfil the next portion of His Promise to Abraham i.e. their own land! (Gen 50:25-26).

The new Pharoah sought to subjugate the nation of Israel. He saw them not as a great ally, but a potential enemy. He made them slaves in Egypt, building the store cities of Raamses and Pithom. It was Joseph who through God’s wisdom had invented store cities! Pharoah also requested the Israelite midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, to kill all infant Hebrew boys and only let the girls live. He sought to weaken Israel, hoping all the older men would die under the harsh conditions of slavery and they would be a nation of women! The midwives however, chose to obey God instead of Pharoah and God honoured them by rewarding them with families and households of their own. Pharoah was on a collision course with God’s Promise and God’s Will for His people and he was fighting a losing battle. Despite the affliction of slavery and the command to kill the infant sons of Israel, Israel blossomed and multiplied under the hand of a gracious God. How ironical that the Bible makes mention of the lowly, God-fearing Hebrew midwives by name but fails to mention the reigning monarch by his name! The lowliest of God’s servants are honoured by Him more than kings (Ex 1:8, 15-21)

Scripture refs: Exodus 1

God's Grace in the Old Testament-Part 4

Genesis is a book which shows us that God is, and always has been, a God of Grace. We have a distinct advantage over Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the other Patriarchs in Genesis. They were journeying with God, discovering His Grace one day at a time in a period when no written record of His Grace yet existed. Today, although we still journey through life experiencing God’s Grace one day at a time, we can also look back into the pages of history as recorded for us in the Bible and see God’s gracious dealings with people in bygone eras.

As we journeyed through the pages of Genesis the last three weeks, we have observed that God’s Grace is unconditional. Abraham did not do anything that made him worthy of God’s Grace, yet God nevertheless showered His unconditional, unlimited Grace upon him and not just him, but his whole family! In fact, it is recorded that through Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed!  (Gen 12:1-3)

Abraham’s son Isaac, did nothing to merit the extension of God’s Grace to him but he received it because God made a promise to his father which He intended to keep, for God is not a man that he should lie. Isaac made the very same mistakes his father made in trying to preserve his life by lying that Rebekah, his wife, was his sister yet God still blessed him and extended the covenant promise to him too. (Gen 26:3-4, 6-13)

Jacob was worse than his father and grandfather! His very name meant “deceiver”. He was a self-absorbed character who stole his brother’s birthright and deceived his uncle Laban by  using selective breeding and attributing his gains to the blessing of the Lord! He was a “wheeler and dealer” by nature. Everything to Jacob was a business deal. He was so used to haggling that he even tried to bargain with God, making vows that God would only be his God if He would feed him, clothe him, preserve and protect him and bring him safely to his father’s house. If anyone was audacious, it was Jacob! After all, who would dare bargain with the Almighty? (Gen 25:28-34, Gen 27:1-36, Gen 30:31-43,  Gen 31:7-12, Gen 28:20-22)

Jacob made mistakes and some of them were premeditated, yet we see no dimunition in God’s grace to him. God sent angels to protect him and allowed him to see them! In Bethel, he was given a vision of a ladder that reached to Heaven and angels ascending and descending on it. The more Jacob sinned and let God down, the more it seemed God’s Grace increased! Sin could not overcome Grace. (Gen 28:12-15, Gen 32:1-2)

In Genesis 32:10-11 and 33:5 and 11, we see the result of God’s Grace. Jacob was the first Patriarch to verbally affirm God’s Grace. After wrestling with God and with men, his name was changed to “Israel” which in Hebrew means “a prince who prevails with God and men.” God showed Jacob that he could get away with bargaining and deceiving men, but he couldn’t do the same with God. Jacob saw the face of God and his life was spared (Gen 32:30). His day of reckoning happened to be his greatest experience of God’s Grace, which changed him forever. (New Testament ref: Romans  5)

God's Grace in the Old Testament-Part 2

God’s grace is revealed in Gen 12 when God chose Abram and made him a promise that through him, all the families of the earth would be blessed. Abram did not choose God, neither was he immediately the man of faith that Hebrews 11 refers to.

It was a gradual transformation as Abram learned to trust in God’s grace. In Gen 12, God instructed Abram to leave  his country, kindred and father’s house and journey to a land which God Himself would show him. Abram obeyed God, but not totally. Instead of leaving everything he knew behind, he took his nephew Lot with him (Gen 12:1-4).

Many times Abram doubted God’s Promise. In Egypt, he was fearful and sought to preserve his life by lying that Sarai, his wife was his sister (Gen 12:13). Abram was still learning to trust in God. God was gracious, preserving King Abimelech from sin because He could see the integrity of his heart when he took Abram’s wife into his royal court. God was patient with Abram, blessing him with great riches, honour and favour despite his failures. When Lot chose the best land for himself, God in His grace reaffirmed His Promise to Abram. Abram became a generous and respectful man. He respected the property rights of others even though he knew that God would give his descendants the whole land. God’s grace was already changing him (Gen 13:10-18). He was learning that it was God’s great grace that made him a prosperous and successful man and he gave God all the glory for his success, attributing none of his success to others or to himself (Gen 14:22-24).

In Gen 15, God affirmed His Promise to Abram yet again. Abram had a crisis in faith, as he had no idea how God planned to fulfil the Promise; all he knew was that he remained childless and he couldn’t  see past his  circumstances. God was patient with Abram, conceding to his request for a sign or assurance that God would indeed give him the land as promised. God asked Abram to prepare some sacrifices and Abram fell into a deep sleep as God revealed in prophetic vision to him the things that would befall his nation.  The 400 years of oppression under Egyptian rule was revealed to him as well as the glory of the exodus from Egypt. God’s grace to the Amorites was also revealed to Abram; God was giving them time to turn to Him and repent of their evil. While Abram’s descendants were yet to possess their inheritance, the Amorites would have opportunity to turn to God.

God Himself passed between the slain animals. The Almighty Himself condescended to make a covenant, binding Himself on pain of death as an earthly king would bind himself when making a covenant with another. The difference was that it was a one-sided covenant. Abram did not pass between the animals for it was God alone who had made the Promise and He alone who would see it to completion through His plan of redemption by the blood of His own Son, “the seed of the woman”. Abram could not break the covenant for he had no part in the making of it. Neither his good works, nor the lack thereof could change the Promise and God’s plan to fulfil it. God’s grace was, and still is, beyond comprehension.

God's Grace in the Old Testament-Part 1

Most people are comfortable with the notion of grace in the New Testament, but find it difficult to reconcile to the God of the Old Testament. Most, when reading the Old Testament, see a God of judgement and wrath whereas the New Testament reveals through Christ, a God of mercy and Truth.

As much as we cannot in our finite minds hope to understand God, the Bible assures us that He never changes (Heb 13:8). That means His character is constant. He has always been a God of grace! God does not have a split personality. Genesis is the book of beginnings, foundational to our belief and doctrines, and I have learned some amazing lessons on Jesus Christ, faith and grace right from page one of the Bible! In order to understand the deep truths in God’s Word, it is essential that one have a strong foundation and what better place to start than in Genesis?

What is “grace”? Many have described it as “unmerited favour.” Somone once described it as “God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense.” The very essence of grace means that it is God -initiated; grace is not a reward of obedience. Rather, it inspires obedience by the transformation of the heart that it engenders. Let’s look at some examples of grace in Genesis.

Gen 12 records the call of Abram. God makes a promise to Abram, a heathen man living in Ur of the Chaldees (otherwise known as Mesopotamia). The people of this nation were known for polytheism, the worship of many gods (Josh 24:2).  In Gen 12:1-3 God makes a promise to Abram to bless him and make him a great nation and that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him. Only a God of grace would choose to make an idolator into a great nation! God affirms this promise  to Abram many times, eventually even making the promise part of his name by changing it from “Abram” (exalted father) to “Abraham” (father of nations). (Gen 13:14-17, Gen 15:1-5, Gen 17:5).

The fulfillment of God’s promise to Abram did not rest on his obedience, but rather he believed in God and God accounted it to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6). Our salvation is not based on our good works or lack thereof; it is based entirely on God’s grace. If the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abram were based on Abram’s works or obedience, he would have failed on many accounts. He lied on more than one occasion that his wife was his sister; he doubted and conceded to his wife’s plan to “help God fulfil His promise” by sleeping with Hagar, etc. God intervened through all of this to ensure that His plan would come to pass. Abraham’s future obedience was only a response to God’s grace that radically changed his heart. In Gen 17:1 God commands Abram to walk before Him and be blameless. God was merely telling him to let the result of His grace (the “credited righteousness” in 15:6) to shine through Abram’s life. Have you experienced God’s grace? He  wants you to let His grace transform you into a shining light for Him in the world today so others may experience His grace too!(Matt 5:16, Eph 2:1-10)

Scripture references: Gen 12-15