Exodus ~God delivers His people

Because the book of Exodus is so rich and full, I can only highlight a few parts here. My hope is that these glimpses will stir your curiosity and encourage you to open your Bible and explore the rest of this incredible story for yourself.

 📖 EXODUS - Shemot -

Author: Attributed to Moses * 

* In Exodus 34:27, God tells Moses, 

“Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 

Date - Mid 1400s BC, give or take...

💪The HERO: The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob 

Supporting Role: Moses (the stuttering, reluctant leader who steps up)

😈 The Villain: Pharaoh - (stubbornness level: 10/10)

⭐ Summary ⭐ 

The Burning Bush (Ex. 3): 

The God who sees, hears, and acts.

The Passover Lamb (Ex. 12): 

Redemption through substitutionary sacrifice.

The Red Sea Crossing (Ex. 14): 

"Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord."

The Golden Calf (Ex. 32): 

Idolatry and the necessity of grace. 

Exodus has action and adventure; you’d think someone would have made a movie about it by now.  😉 and yes, I know about the movie The Ten Commandments. I was trying to make a joke. 

Moses, chosen by God, begins an incredible journey that leads him to Mount Sinai, where he receives God’s law. Along the way, God establishes an everlasting covenant: they would be His people, and He would be their God.

This story includes a dramatic escape from Egypt, the miraculous parting of the Red Sea, and even a heartbreaking moment when the people turn to worship a golden calf. It’s a powerful story of faith, failure, and resilience.

As Genesis closes, the Israelites are thriving in Egypt, having settled there through Joseph - Abraham’s great-grandson, who rose from slavery to become second-in-command (see Genesis 37:12–36). But after Joseph’s death, a new Pharaoh rises who sees the Israelites as a major threat and enslaves them.

God hears their cries and remembers His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He raises up Moses as their deliverer.

Moses is such an intriguing figure. To understand his story more fully, take a moment to read about his early life in Exodus 2:1–23.

There’s intense drama between Moses and Pharaoh as Moses repeatedly demands, “Let my people go.” (Exodus 8–11). What follows are the ten plagues, each one displaying God’s power:

✔ Water turned to blood
✔ Frogs covering the land
✔ Gnats from the dust
✔ Swarms of flies
✔ Death of livestock
✔ Painful boils
✔ Devastating hail
✔ Locusts consuming crops
✔ Darkness for three days
✔ Death of the firstborn*

*After the last plague, Pharaoh’s firstborn son sadly passes away, and this finally convinces Pharaoh to let the people go, marking the beginning of the Exodus! But not long after, he changes his mind and decides to chase after them. In an incredible moment, God performs a breathtaking miracle, parting the Red Sea and allowing the people to escape safely.

What a journey. From freedom to fear, the people quickly forget, turning to a golden calf when Moses delays on the mountain.  Not cool!  Yet God remains faithful, and the Israelites begin a long, often difficult journey through the wilderness.

 🌿 Why the Wilderness Matters

The trip from Egypt to the Promised Land should have taken about eleven days, but it lasted forty years.

Why?

Unbelief. Fear. Disobedience.

Yet through it all, God never left them. He provided manna from heaven, quail for food, water from a rock, and even their Birkinstocks lasted for 40 years without wearing out.

Every.
Single.
Day.

In many ways, the wilderness mirrors our own walk with God. Sometimes the journey feels longer and harder than expected. We struggle, doubt, and complain just like the Israelites.

Still, God remains faithful.

The wilderness is often where He teaches us to trust Him most. As Deuteronomy 8:2 reminds us, God used that time to humble and test His people, revealing what was in their hearts. 

His purpose was always the same: to bring them into the land He promised.

💡 What Stands Out to Me

God said to Moses:

“I AM WHO I AM… Say this to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14)

When Jesus speaks in the book of John, He echoes this divine name—something His Jewish audience would have immediately recognized:

John 8:58 — “Before Abraham was born, I am!”
John 6:48 — I AM the Bread of Life
John 8:12 — I AM the Light of the World
John 10:11 — I AM the Good Shepherd
John 11:25 — I AM the Resurrection and the Life
John 14:6 — I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life
John 15:5 — I AM the Vine

 What Exodus Teaches Us About God

Exodus reveals a God who hears, remembers, rescues, and leads.

“God heard their groaning and remembered His covenant…” (Exodus 2:24)

He had not forgotten them, not for a moment.

Throughout Exodus, we see that God is:

• Faithful to His promises
• Powerful over kings and nations
• Patient with His people
• Holy -  setting His people apart
• Present, led by cloud and fire

Isn't it lovely that He wants to be close to us? That's the beautiful purpose of the Tabernacle!

Key takeaway: It’s not about how great the leader is, but how faithful the Promise-Keeper is.

✝️ How It Points to Christ

God established the Passover as a lasting remembrance, marked by the blood of a lamb.

But Exodus doesn’t just tell a story; it points forward.

From “I AM” to the Passover lamb, the thread of redemption is already being woven.

Just as God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt, Jesus rescues us from slavery to sin and death.

Just for Fun 😁

After the exodus through the Red Sea, Moses's staff could no longer perform miracles, and yet he kept it beside him the rest of his life...

...he just couldn't part with it.

My Exodus Rating gets a perfect 10.

📜📜📜📜📜 📜 📜 📜 📜 📜 

If you missed my review on Genesis, you can read that here. 

Genesis ~ In the Beginning

I sincerely appreciate your understanding regarding my inability to provide a comprehensive verse-by-verse review. My primary aim is to encourage an enjoyable experience that piques the interest of those who may be new to these texts or haven't read them in a while.  

source: commons.wikimedia

 📖  Genesis - Bereishit 

(“In the Beginning”)

Author: Moses 

In Jewish tradition, it's believed that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, known as the Torah. These five books have formed the foundation of all of Scripture.

Date: Moses lived around 1393 BC, but the amazing stories in Genesis go all the way back to the very beginning of time!

Rated: PG13 

• Brief Nudity in Gen 3:6. 
• The Book of Genesis, particularly chapter 19, contains mature themes, but it is generally considered more aligned with a PG-13 rating than with an X rating, as it tends to tell rather than show explicit content. Overall, it does not cross the line into R-rated territory.

Why you should read this Book 

Genesis is an exciting book of the Bible that has a little something for everyone! - Great for Children with some adult supervision! 

⭐ Summary ⭐

From the very beginning, the story of creation opens with the idea that God has always been there. 

"In the beginning, God..." (1.1). 

🌍 It beautifully outlines how God created the entire universe and everything we see around us in just six days by speaking them into existence! This reminds me of the passage in John 1:1-5: 

1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. 

Genesis tells us how God created man from the dust of the ground and breathed life into him, and how woman was beautifully made from man’s rib. Adam and Eve enjoyed a perfect relationship with God, even walking with Him in the garden. Imagine that! 

“Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”  Genesis 2:7

But in Genesis 3, everything changes. 

Our first couple chose to disobey God and eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. 

That single act of disobedience brought sin into the world and changed everything for humanity. Talk about consequences! We're still navigating those today. 

From there, the book begins to unfold the growing consequences of sin. We see rebellion spread quickly, leading to heartbreaking events such as the first brotherly conflict between Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. As wickedness increased, God sent a flood to cleanse the earth, saving only the righteous Noah and his family (Genesis 6–9).

There is so much more to discover in Genesis, including the story of the Tower of Babel, where humanity once again tried to exalt itself above God. You will definitely want to read it for yourself to see how everything unfolds.

Genesis also introduces Abram, whom God later renames Abraham, because he would become the father of many nations. God chose him to be the patriarch of a special people called Israel. Their story is quite an adventure, especially when the family eventually finds themselves in Egypt, setting the stage for the dramatic future events that follow in the next book, Exodus.

The story of Abraham and Sarah is especially memorable. God called Abraham to leave his homeland and journey to a land He would show him. Along the way, there are some wild moments. 

• Abraham claimed Sarah was his sister
• God promised them a son even though they were old and Sarah was barren, and Sarah tried to solve the problem in her own way. 
• A nation was born through that decision, but not the one God had promised.

Yet God remained faithful to His word. In their old age, He fulfilled His promise and gave Abraham and Sarah a son. When they laughed at the idea, God had the last laugh. Their son was named Isaac, which means “he laughs” in Hebrew.

The story continues through a very dysfunctional family line. There are twins struggling even in the womb, a hairy older brother and a younger one who deceives him, Jacob’s dream of a stairway reaching to heaven, and finally Joseph, the younger brother with the brightly colored tunic his father gave him. Jealous of their father’s favoritism, Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, and he was taken to Egypt.

Genesis is really the starting point for so many important themes: the beginning of creation, the introduction of sin, moments of judgment, displays of mercy, the establishment of covenants, and the story of God’s chosen people. Throughout the book, we come across imperfect individuals making mistakes, but we also see a loving and faithful God who keeps His promises and is gently working out a beautiful plan for all of us.

💡 What stands out to me 

Genesis 12: 1-3 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land I will show you.“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." 

✝️ How Genesis points to Christ

"God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness." (1:26) The Trinity. (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) 

God gives the first prediction of a Savior as He curses the serpent for deceiving Eve, "I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers, he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." (3:15). 

Genesis 12:1-3 - (See above) The preservation of God's Word through the Jewish people, the Foundation of our roots, and the Messiah will come out of this great nation. 

📌 Key Verse

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Gen 1;1

JUST FOR FUN

⚾

Where does baseball appear in the Bible?

Genesis -

 In the Big Inning. 

👍👍👍 Final Rating 👍👍👍

“★★★★★  Always worth reading.”

The Bible in 66 Reviews

Here it is March, and I’ve been using this nearly 6-week blogging rest to go through the many draft posts I had started over the years on subjects I wanted to write about but never quite finished. So one of the things I’ve been doing during this blog break is sorting through those drafts: deleting some and finishing others.

A few years ago, after reading so many book reviews, I had a 💡 bright idea - 

What if I wrote a book review of all 66 books of the Bible, from 

**Genesis to **Revelation? 

I thought it would be fun. Of course, every one of them received a big thumbs-up.👍👍👍

For this project, I will review the 66 books in my Bible. Other Christian bibles include additional historical writings, but my focus here will simply be these 66 books of Scripture.

It seems the Lord has me constantly reading the Bible these days anyway.  My nose is always within the pages of this great Book. Not only do I read it, but it stirs up questions, ideas, and things I want to explore more deeply. That often leads me to other big books: Strong’s Concordance, different Bible translations, and the occasional commentary. I’m always careful with those, though. They are meant to aid my study and understanding, not replace the reading of Scripture itself.

I’m really enjoying it.

I have always felt God wanted me to use this little corner of the internet for His glory, not my own. I’ll admit, I wrestled with that for a while, always striving for what I wanted. 

A commenter wrote something that stayed with me - that a Christian Blog is a lighthouse on a dark internet.  

"I believe you should share God's Word whenever/wherever you can when the Holy Spirit guides you to. If people do not want to read what you write, that is their problem. Some words will fall on infertile ground; this does not mean the sower should stop spreading seeds." 

Thank you, Victor! 

Such a simple comment, but it struck me deeply and got me thinking almost immediately! 

I realized that I will always have at least one reader, and that is the ONE who matters most.

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” 

Colossians 3:23

Only because I am excited to get started, the first post will be on Friday, March 27, and every Friday after. So be looking for it. 👀

I hope you will enjoy it. Okay, here goes...

PS. You might want to check out a recent post I wrote for Victor's Christian Lounge about aging. 

SIMPLY PUT ~ What is the Doctrine of the Bible?

 

The Bible 

Simply put, the HOLY Bible comprises 66 writings from over 40 authors. It reveals who God is to people. Therefore, its words are not just from the human authors; they are also the Words of God (2 Timothy 3:15-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21).

The Bible is free from error because God does not make mistakes or tell lies (Numbers 23:19; 2 Samuel 22:31; Proverbs 30:5; John 17:17).

Therefore, the Bible never affirms anything contrary to His Word. 

The text is clear and tells one significant story: the story of redemption. It does not contradict itself.

God works through the Bible to achieve His goals, including saving those who are lost. You can see this in Isaiah 55:10-11, 1 Peter 1:23-25, and Psalm 119.

Application: 

I can trust God's Word because He is the Word.

 John 1 1-18

The Word became Flesh!

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it. 6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. 

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 

16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and[b] is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.