Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Exodus 3-5; Psalm 18: Luke 22

Exodus
3:17-19 - Amazing promises of God that Moses was to deliver to the Israelites:
  1. I will bring you up out of the misery of Egypt
  2. I will compel the King of Egypt to let you go
  3. I will bring you into such favor with the Egyptian people that when you leave you will take with you their silver, gold, and clothing
3:18 - God told Moses to ask to leave on false pretenses (?), i.e. "3 days' journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices."

4:18 - Moses left Midian on false pretenses (?), i.e. to see how his family was doing.

4:24-26 - I don't understand anything about this passage. The LORD was trying to kill Moses? Zipporah circumcised their son, then told Moses he was a "bridegroom of blood" to her. The LORD's trying to kill Moses, then, apparently had something to do with their uncircumcised son?

4:30-31 - The signs Moses and Aaron performed seemed to easily convince the Israelites that they were from God. The signs gave them the credibility Moses had wanted.

5:3 - Another falsehood (?) - that God would punish the Israelites if they didn't take the 3 days' journey to sacrifice to Him.

5:4-14 - The request to Pharaoh for relief results in still more oppression. (Oh -- asking for a break? You apparently have too much time on your hands!)

5:22-23 - Moses rails against God because of the increased cruelty. Pharaoh's cruelty is the fault of God; God is not rescuing them quickly enough.

Psalm 18:7-15
Even though this is God's response to David's plea, it is an appropriate description of what is about to happen in Egypt in our Exodus reading. Look, for example, at verse 12: "Out of the brightness before him there broke through his clouds hailstones and coals of fire."

Luke 22
vv. 5-6 - Did Judas Iscariot think that he'd have it both ways: 1) get some money and 2) see Jesus walk away from the danger, as he had done before? Back in 18:32, when Jesus talked of his death, the twelve had not grasped what he was saying.

v. 7-13 - Reminiscent of when Jesus sent his disciples ahead to get the colt before his triumphal entry into Jerusalem (19:30). Everything was ready, "just as he had told them" (19:32 and 22:13).

22:36-38 - Another misunderstanding? It appeared to me as I read Jesus' instructions about the sword that he was talking about their future "mission" trips, but they interpreted it as what they would need right then.

22:39-46 - The disciples were asleep when they should have been praying -- they were ignorant of what was to come. A lesson for us here?

22:49 - Sure enough! Time for the sword. Good o'l Peter -- always ready for a confrontation.

22:54-62 - Peter's denial emphasizes the danger of saying to others (or to ourselves) "I would never...."

22:66-71 - The chief priests and scribes finally had Jesus right where they wanted him. Little did they know he was actually using them.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cheryl, I was just checking if you noticed what I did. The Lord tried to kill Moses? First time I've ever noticed that. There was a reference in my Bible to Numbers 22:22,when the angel of the Lord stood in the path of Balaam and his donkey."Angel of the Lord took His stand in the way as an adversary against him." Amazing implications here.

Unknown said...

Yvonne: Most of the commentaries I checked on this (from SearchGodsWord.org) seem to agree that God was angry because Moses had not yet circumcised his son. One of the most detailed, The Jamiesson, Fausset, and Brown commentary (and others), seem to think Moses became very ill. Others think an angel tried to kill him with a sword (like in Numbers 22:22). Whatever the case, performing the circumcision was very distasteful to Zipporah.