The book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible picks up 400 years after the end of the book of Genesis.Jacob's small familyof 70 has now grown to over 2 million strong, and Pharaoh, being fearful of rebellion force the Israelites into hard labor and slavery to keep them from fighting back and overthrowing the kingdom. His paranoia comes to a head when he decided to kill every newborn male in the tribe of Israel to keep the population down. Fortunately,the midwives appointed this task can't bring themselves to do it, and allow the families tolet there children live, Moses' family being one of them. However, they aren't able to hide the infant for long, soin a last desperate attempt to preserve the child's life, they place the three-month old baby in a basket and float him down the Nile River. Instead of the child being swept away into the wilderness, the basket makes its way to the place where Pharaoh's daughter takes her bath, and seeing the beauty of the child decides to keep him, andunknowingly ends up placing the child in the care of his birth mother. Nonetheless, Moses is an Egyptian and Pharaoh in training.Fast forward to Moses' adulthood. He sees an Israelite being unfairlybeaten, and he comes to the rescue of the Hebrew, killing the Egyptian guard. Moses hides the body in the sand, but to no avail, forsomeone finds out ofthe murder. In order to avoid punishment, (possibly death) Moses flees Egypt andsettles in the land of MIdian, where he becomesa sheep herder, the trade of his original Hebrew family. While up onMt. Sinai, Moses notices a bush on fire. Now, bushes burning in the arid desert is not out of the ordinary, but this one is not consumedby the fire. The bush speaks to him and calls him by name, and Moses now realizes that he is speaking to God himself. God tells him that He knows of the plight of the Israelites, and that He will employ Moses for the task of freeing them, along withhis brother,Aaron.After some convincing, Moses accepts the task and they travel back to Egypt with the power of God. God uses Moses and Aaron to perform miracles, each successive one becoming more and more destructive to convince the stubborn Pharaoh to free the Israelites, but he just won't let them go. Finally, God decides to bring the angel of death and kill every first born male in Egypt, similar to the atrocity that Pharaoh instituted when Moses was born. The Israelites were saved from such a plague because of the sacrifice of an unblemished lamb, which is thereason for the passover celebration still held by Jews to this day. When Pharaoh loses his son, he reluctantly lets the Israelites go, but ends up going out into the desert to hunt them down. In order to truly free the Israelites, God must perform one more miracle; He splits the Red Sea, allowing the Israelites to cross it on dry ground, and when the Egyptian army chases, God brings the sea back down, killing the entire army. From then on, the rest of the book covers the covenant God makes with Israel, the agreement they enter into, where God promises them blessings and preparation for entering the promised land, the land inhabited by the descendants of Cain, the son of Adam and Eve who killed his brother and was cursed. These people were wicked in God's eyes, and as an act of divine judgment, He will use the nation of Israel to drive them out of the fertile land. In return, the Israelites are asked to obey God's laws and remain faithful to Him. Most are aware of the ten commandments, the first set of rules God gives Moses, but there are other laws going into detail about how one should live with each other and how their relationship with God should be that are also given. The book of Exodus is not only the story of God's dealing with Israel, but it is a book rich in moral meaning, and insight into God's character. Moses was a murderer, but God used him as the greatest prophet who ever lived, and was willing to give him the esteemed position of God's friend. Tlearned a great deal about faith and trust. They hadn't seen Moses in 40 years, but they trusted in him and in God to save them from the world's most powerful army without any weaponry, only faith and obedience. Moses, Aaron, and the nation of Israel learned about obedience to God, for that was His only requirement, they didn't have to pay, fight, of contribute anything, just do as He says. Not only do we learn a moral lesson, but the whole story is a foreshadowing of the work Jesus Christ did on the cross. He also went to war for us with the army of hell and freed us from our sin, and bought us into covenant with him. Even the passover celebration has distinct ties to the cross.
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