Bible in One Year Day 29 (Exodus 4 - 5, Leviticus 4, Psalm 46)

  You may subscribe yourself at the Ascension site here and receive notifications in your email, or just follow along on my blog.  Bible in One Year Readings Index 

Day 29 Moses Returns to Egypt 

From a Study I did in 2010 on the connection between Passover the the Eucharist

Still not quite convinced Moses asks God, “Suppose they will not believe me?” (Ex 4:1) Then the Lord gave Moses a sign with his staff that when thrown to the ground would become a serpent. And his hand when pressed to his breast would become leprous. The Lord told Moses that if the Pharaoh would not believe him after those two signs he was to take water from the Nile and pour it on the dry land where it would become blood.

Moses still protested saying that he was not eloquent, and asked please put someone else up to the task. So God says, okay Aaron your brother will do the talking for you in fact he is on his way to meet you. “You are to speak to him, then, and put the words in his mouth. I will assist both you and him in speaking and will teach the two of you what you are to do.” (Ex 4:15-16) With God’s assurance that Moses was to return to Egypt safely, he took his wife and sons and went back to Egypt. Though God warned him that Pharaoh would be obstinate so Moses was to say, “Thus says the Lord: Israel is my son, my first-born.” (Ex 4:23)

Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh and say “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Let my people go, that they may celebrate a feast to me in the desert.” (Ex 5:1) Pharaoh was not happy about letting the Hebrew people off work for three days so he made the Israelites job harder by withholding some of the material they needed to make bricks for his buildings. “Thus says Pharaoh: I will not provide you with straw. Go and gather the straw yourselves, wherever you can find it. Yet there must not be the slightest reduction in your work.” (Ex 5:10-11)

+++

Commentary Understanding the Scriptures (Chapter 7, page 133 - 134) 

God sent Moses to Egypt with a message and a demand, both to be delivered to Pharaoh.  The message was this "Israel is my first-born son."  (Ex 4:22)  Israel is the elder brother of all the nations and will be the covenant head.  The other nations are like God's younger children or Israel's younger siblings.  God will make Israel a model for righteousness and wisdom so that nations might learn how to walk in the ways of God.  

The demand was to let the people of Israel go three days journey into the desert to offer sacrifice to the Lord.  Moses was not to demand their freedom or even ask Pharaoh to be less hard on them.  They just needed a few days for a religious festival.  It did however come with a threat, "If you refuse to let Israel go, behold, I will slay your first-born son." (Ex 4:23)

Egypt, God says, could be his child also, but only by letting God's first born son Israel go and serve God.  So Egypt would learn how to serve God by watching Israel.  

God knew however that Pharaoh would not listen. "And the Lord said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart, so he will not let the people go. (Ex 4:21)   Because of that, God would bring judgment on Egypt and the first-born of Egypt would be killed, and Israel would be led out of slavery to the Promised Land.  

Moses and Aaron (unknown artist)

So two old men, Moses at 80 and his brother Aaron at 83 went back to Egypt to confront the most powerful king in the world.  When they asked Pharaoh to let the Israelites go and have a festival to their God, Pharaoh thought that they had too much time on their hands and commanded the taskmasters of the Israelites to no longer give the people straw to make their bricks and at the same time not lessening the amount of bricks they needed to make.  

The Egyptians made the Israelites work harder and the Israelites blamed Moses and Aaron.  

                                                    Commentary by Raymond Campbell  

Study Light Commentary 

Leviticus chapter 4 regards ignorance.  To be ignorant of what we are bound to know is sinful, and for such ignorance, sacrifices are prescribed in this chapter.  

The Sin Offering (chatta'ah) in the non-sweet savor offering. A purification for sin and the guilt/trespass sacrifices.  The form chatta'ah comes from the verbal stem "to purify'.  It deals with sin as a whole.  The guilt/trespass offerings are also purification for sin offerings but deal with particular breaches of the covenant, and are connected with compensation, and making things right.   A special feature to this in the whole bullock being burnt upon the ground outside the camp of Israel after the blood and fat were put upon the altar for God.  This offering was sin and pictures to us Christ who was made sin for us (Sin-bearer) and endured the judgement and wrath of God against sin in our stead as our substitute. 

This concentrates on sin, its eradication and its need for forgiveness and purification.  The sacrifices are at different levels dependent on whose sin they deal with.   The major purification for sin offerings are those for the sins of the priests, who are representatives of the church or assembly of Israel.  

+++
A Daily Defense 
Day 29 Spirituality and Organized Religion 

CHALLENGE: “It is enough to simply be spiritual. There is no need to be religious or to belong to an organized religion.”

DEFENSE: This presupposes that we don’t know which religion is true. If we knew little about the supernatural world—perhaps simply that it exists—it might make sense to hold to only a general spirituality. 

However, if we know more, the situation changes. The more we know, the more we are obligated to believe. If we know enough to show that a particular religion is true, we are obligated by our knowledge of the truth to embrace that religion. 

And if the religion we know to be true is organized, we are obliged to embrace organized religion.

 Individuals vary in what they know. Some may know only enough to justify a general spirituality, but this is not the case for everyone. An extensive body of evidence supporting the Christian faith exists.

This evidence is documented by the field known as Christian apologetics, and some of it is found in this book. Those aware of this evidence and the truth of the Christian faith are obliged to accept it. For them, merely being spiritual is not enough. They are obliged by their knowledge of the truth to become Christian. 

Christianity is an organized religion and has been since the beginning. It was founded by Jesus, who appointed twelve apostles to be its first leaders (Matt. 10:1–4, Mark 3:13–19, Luke 6:12 16). They then appointed other leaders, and the Christian faithful have an obligation to respect their leaders (1 Thess. 5:12; Heb. 13:17). 

Having more knowledge—and thus more truth—is good. We apply this principle in every other field, and it is true in religion and spirituality as well. The fact that God has revealed more about himself also gives us greater reason to love and appreciate him and what he has done for us. 

 “Suppose it were possible to know more. Wouldn’t you want to know? Wouldn’t that be a good thing?” Asking these questions can be an invitation to study the Christian faith and the evidence supporting it.

 Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist