If you consider Harvest your church home and are not on our email list, click here.

A delivered son delivers

February 12, 2017 Speaker: Gary Series: Exodus: freed to be God's people

Scripture: Exodus 2:1–25

Freed to be God’s people: a study of Exodus
A delivered son delivers – outline
Exodus 2:1-25
God prepares a deliverer for Israel, hears their cry for help, and prepares to act on his covenant

Pharaoh had tried to stop the Hebrews from multiplying, first by slave labor, then by midwives killing the baby boys as they were being born, then at last through commanding Egyptians to throw Hebrew baby boys into the Nile.

1) Moses’ mother puts baby Moses in the reeds of the Nile to keep him from the Egyptians, 2:1-4.
Consider this passage in the light of Hebrews 11:23. In what ways is Moses’ mother acting by faith? The only other use of the word translated “basket” is in Genesis 6-9 where it is the word for “ark” (26 times). What is the significance of this?

2) Pharaoh’s daughter finds Moses on the Nile and takes pity on him, 2:5-6.
What is amazing about this?

3) Moses’ sister gets Pharaoh’s daughter to hire Moses’ mom to nurse him, then he becomes her son, 2:7-10.
How is Moses delivered from Pharaoh’s death sentence? How is Moses uniquely set up to deliver Israel from Egypt? How does Moses’ name relate to his deliverance through water and to how he will deliver Israel out of Egypt through water?

4) Moses kills an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew, then flees to Midian when it is known, 2:11-15.
Stephen said Moses was 40 at this time (Acts 7:23). We see Moses has identified with his people. Read Hebrews 11:24-26 and talk about how significant it is for Moses to identify with his people. According to Acts 7:25, what was Moses thinking about his intervention in his people’s lives? Given that after Moses flees to Midian, God doesn’t call Moses back to Egypt for 40 more years (!), what was problematic about Moses’ efforts to start trying to deliver Israel at this time? Given that Israel was suffering greatly, what do we learn about God’s timing? What can we learn about how important God’s preparation process?

5) Moses delivers a Midianite’s daughters, so he is invited to live with them and marries Zipporah, 2:16-22.
How does Moses display his deliverer instinct? What are some ways Moses is being shaped?

6) Israel cries for help; God hears, remembers his covenant, sees Israel and knows, 2:23-25.
What does it mean for God to remember his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? What does it mean that God saw the people of Israel—and God knew? How does Israel’s waiting on God to deliver them from slavery in Egypt compare to Israel’s waiting for the Messiah? Why didn’t God act sooner (see Gal. 4:4)? What are situations in your life in which you have groaned and cried out to God and you have nearly despaired of waiting? How does what God has done and promises to do for you in Christ give you hope?

More in Exodus: freed to be God's people

January 21, 2018

We have seen His glory

January 14, 2018

Changed by the presence of God

January 7, 2018

God's steadfast covenant love