Pharaoh, with a heart hardened by God, called all his army and every chariot in Egypt together and took off after Israel. They caught up with God’s people, camped out and backed up against the Red Sea, just as God had led them! The people of Israel heard horses and chariots and men’s footsteps behind them and you get the picture of 2 million people turning away from the Pillar of Cloud to watch th...  Read More

The importance of the firstborn has been lost in many ways in our culture, and of course we want to love each of our children the same. But in the ancient world, the firstborn son represented the future of the family. He was given rights and privileges that were not given to the others, including the right to inherit a double portion from his father. But this was not to show favoritism. He was to ...  Read More

The feast instituted by God in the Old Testament and the Lord’s Supper instituted by Christ in the New Testament are purposeful remembrances that point to God’s mighty acts of deliverance. Moses said to Israel, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place.” He repeats that twice more, “For with a strong ...  Read More

According to a 2022 article in Time magazine, we have really wasted a lot of time over the past several weeks talking about an omnipotent and sovereign God who brought 10 plagues on Egypt to force Pharaoh’s hand and deliver God’s people from 430 years of slavery. Nope. Didn’t happen, and Olvia Waxman, the author of the article clears it all up very simply with three alternate theories. I will just...  Read More

God ordained the Passover as an annual celebration for Israel after the first one in Egypt right before the people of God were delivered from bondage. This meal would become part of a Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Here are a few observations on this story in Exodus 12. First, notice that God says this is a memorial day. God commanded it in order to remind them forever of God’s great deliverance from...  Read More

When Ernest Shackleton and his crew on the ship Endurance set out on December 5, 1914, they were bound for Antarctica. On January 15 their ship got hopelessly stuck in an ice pack east of Antarctica in the Weddell Sea. From then on, their goal was simply to survive. The freezing temperatures and the near starvation were horrible, but when winter approached in late April, the crew of the ship grew ...  Read More

I love the question God asked Pharaoh in Exodus that starts with “How long?” That phrase is also repeated by Pharaoh’s servants. “How long?” God asks Pharaoh, “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me.” There are many times the Psalm writers asked the Lord, “How long?” When will you deliver us, O Lord? But this time it is directed at a man. “H...  Read More

Remember Lenny LeBlanc’s song, “There is none like you”? Sing it with me: “There is none like you…no one else can touch my heart like you do. I could search for all eternity long and find, there is none like you.” We want to sing that song as people who know God, not as people like Pharaoh, who see it but do not believe it. The sixth plague followed the pattern of every third plague, with no warni...  Read More

It is time for the fourth plague on Egypt, and we can only assume that the third plague of mosquitoes was removed. We are not certain! The way Moses records the plagues, the third, sixth and ninth are neither warned about nor removed. It is interesting to imagine that if these three plagues were not removed as were the others, then the people of Egypt were covered with mosquitoes and boils, and li...  Read More

When Aaron struck the dust with his staff, the people of Egypt were covered with gnats. There are a couple of firsts in this, the third plague. This is the first one for which there is no warning. That happens for each set of three. There’s no warning given for the 3rd, 6th, or 9th plagues. This serves perhaps to draw attention to the last and deadliest plague. This is also the first plague that h...  Read More

The last time we saw Moses by the Nile was when he was drawn out of the water and handed to the Pharaoh’s daughter. Her actions changed his life as she saved the deliverer whom God had raised up. Now Moses is back at the Nile and what he will do, by God’s power, will change the Pharaoh’s life and family. God is about to show His sovereign control over every one of the Egyptian gods and over everyt...  Read More

Moses interrupts his narrative in Exodus 6 for a genealogy. And if you read through it, you might think, this is not very interesting reading. Or you may think, who in his right mind would name his son “Mushi?” But remember Paul’s instruction, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may b...  Read More