• At the time of Moses’ birth, the pyramids of Giza were 1,000 years old
• The book of Exodus spans 81 years
• Moses is Jacob’s great grandson (I think. He’s definitely a descendant of Jacob.)

And now we begin with The Burning Bush

One day Moses was moseying along when he saw a burning bush. God spoke to him through the bush and told him that he was the chosen one. The man who would free the Israelites from Egypt. With God by his side, Moses was going to pay the pharaoh a visit and demand the freedom of Israelites.

Moses, like most people in his position, had dobuts about whether or not the pharaoh would listen to him. God handled this by endowing his staff with three signs.

The pharaoh is unimpressed with Moses each time he performs one of the signs. He has a crew of sorcerers who were able to perform all of the same things. BUT! They couldn’t undo what Moses had done. Only God could.

The pharaoh still wouldn’t listen. And so begins the 10 plagues of Egypt.

The River of Blood

Frogs

Gnats & Flies

The Plague of Livestock

The Plague of Boils

The Plague of Hail

The Plague of Locusts

The Plague of Darkness

The Plague on the Firstborn

This is where the passover begins. God instructed Moses to tell all of the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb and rub its blood around the doorways of their homes so that when God cursed Egypt with the plague of the firsborns, the firstborn children of the Israelites would be spared.

After this final curse, the pharaoh allowed the Israelites to leave Egpyt. But it was a short-lived victory for Moses because shortly after leaving Egypt, he and the Israelites found they were being chased by the pharaoh.

But God expected this.

He told Moses to lead everyone to the Red Sea. And this is where Moses raised his staff and parted the Red Sea.

Moses and his people traveled through the Red Sea on dry land. As the pharaoh and his people followed after them, God closed the sea around them, swallowing them up.

With the dangers of Egypt behind them, Moses and his people began their journey to Mt. Sinai.

During this journey to Mt. Sinai a few interesting things happened. Or at least, things that I found interesting.

First, after spending several days in the desert, Moses and his people came to Marah where they couldn’t drink any of the water because it was bitter. Moses called out to God for some help and God instructed him to throw a piece of wood into the water. After doing that, the water was no longer bitter.

I did a quick internet search on this and found an article written by UPI (United Press International). It states that scientists at MIT have found that sapwood (taken from white pine trees) can act as a filter for water.

Also, the word “manna,” is referenced numerous times throughout this book as well as other books in the Bible. The study notes in my Bible state that manna is used to describe food that God provides.

Three months after fleeing Egypt, Moses and the Israelites arrived at Mt. Sinai where they will remain throughout the remainder of Exodus, all of Leviticus, and most of Numbers.

This is where reading Exodus got tedious for me.

First, Moses leaves his people at the base of Mt. Sinai and travles up the mountain where he receives the Ten Commandments. But after he receives the Ten Commandments, God provides further instructions for everyone to follow. These include rules for how to handle civil and criminal disputes; annual festivals, acceptable Tabernacle offerings, and a detailed description of how the Tabernacle was to be built, all of the materials for building it, details for how all of its furnishings were to be built as well as all of the coverings that were to be made for the priests.

When I was reading it, I felt like I was inside an episode of something on HGTV.

Normally, I love watching shows on HGTV but this Biblical episode started in chapter 25 and went all the way through 31.

As Moses was traveling down Mt. Sinai, the people of Israel grew fearful and demanded Aaron, Moses’ brother, to do something. So Aaron made a calf out of gold-

-Aaron made a calf idol out of gold for the people to worship.

After 40 days and 40 nights, Moses came down from the mountain just in time to see his people worshipping an idol. As you probably remember, he was not pleased at what he saw and in a fit of rage, he smashed the tablets.

The exciting part for me was when Aaron tried to cover his tracks. He told his brother that the Israelites gave him gold and when he threw the gold into the fire, a golden calf magically popped out of the fire.

And because of Aaron’s actions: both the making of the calf and the lie he told, God struck the people with a plague.

Moses returned to the mountain, got the new set of tablets and then came back down. The rest of the chapters in Exodus are Moses telling the people how the Tabernacle is to be built along with all of its furnishings.

And this is the story of Exodus. In a nutshell.

That’s all for this week!

Thanks for shopping Snark, Sass, & Sarcasm! I’ll see you next time.

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