Response Work:
Here's another simple assignment that you need to bring with you in two weeks to Disciple: Whether typed up or hand written, I want you to explain in your own words 3 major points you've learned during our first four weeks of Disciple. 

What things have stood out to you the most so far? What thoughts have stayed with you? The explanation doesn't have to be more than a page, and you can include verses, illustrations, etc to help you explain. 

Have your parents read it and sign the bottom of it and bring it along on March 25.

The Candlesticks of Grace

We began our night looking at a scene from Les Miserables. It was an illustration of what grace is: It is a free and undeserved gift from God. The following scene looks at this more closely:

"Don't ever forget. You've promised to be a new man...You no longer belong to evil. With this silver, I bought your soul. I ransomed you from fear and hatred."

These words are echoed throughout the Gospel as we have been bought by the blood of Christ and ransomed our souls from a life separated from Him. This is one of the most important pieces of God's Love Story and a truth that we must never forsake.

What about the Covenant?!

Last week we looked at promises made to Abraham about 1) having a great nation and name from his descendants 2) all who bless his family would be blessed, all who cursed his family would be cursed 3) his descendants would have land of their own and 4) that all the world would be blessed through his family. 

300 or so years later, the Israelite people are brutally oppressed as slaves working for one of the world's great super powers: The Pharaoh of Egypt:
"So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor. They forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king. ¹² But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became. ¹³ So the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy. ¹⁴ They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands." (Exodus 1:11-14, NLT)


The people of Israel have been suffering as slaves for hundreds of years. Their identity and dignity as human beings has been all but erased. From later passages, it appears that no one knew who God was any more...Their covenant relationship with Him had long been lost under the weight of suffering. Where was God? When would He deliver them?




God Demonstrates His Power and Deliverance

We looked at God's plan of deliverance as done through Moses. In Exodus 7:1, God tells "“Pay close attention to this. I will make you seem like God to Pharaoh, and your brother, Aaron, will be your prophet. " From that point on, God demonstrates His power to both the Egyptian people and the Israelites through a series of explosive displays of His power, which we call the 10 Plagues.


Although it's too much to explain on this blog, we looked at how each plague could be linked to a specific aspect of Egyptian religious practice or deity. God shows that He is the One True and Only God by insulting the entire system of Egyptian belief, leading to the chief god Amon-Ra (the sun god) and Pharaoh himself (who was considered the reincarnation of Ra). It's a fascinating study to see how the plagues tie into specific gods. I would caution that the view we looked at isn't the only one as there are other theories and other gods that may have fit into plagues 1-8.

There's still more...

We didn't completely wrap up our story of the delivery from Egypt. We looked at God's demonstration of  who He is to Egypt and Israel, but we left with the Jewish people probably fearfully unsure of what to do with this God who came to save them. Is this a god to fear? If He can destroy the Egyptians, what could He do to a bunch of worthless slaves?


Next Thursday we take a break from the Love Story to look at the early church history. In two weeks, we'll continue our look at the Passover and life after Egypt.