I-YOUniverse

Since our Bible reading group didn’t meet tonight February 9 due to sleet, I’m sharing a quick look at a few of the most important symbols in Western history based on Exodus.

There are as many symbols as there are imaginations. But these have been affirmed through the centuries.

From Slavery to Freedom

Just as the Israelites left slavery for freedom, many others have. The English Pilgrims left religious repression for religious freedom in the New World. Sadly, they often became repressors. They viewed the Native Americans as cursed Canaanites and felt God gave them the land. Clearly, we need to rethink their theology.

Jews in the 19th and 20th centuries began a new exodus movement (Zionism), culminating in the state of Israel. But, again, it’s wrong to view Palestinians in the role of cursed Canaanites.

American blacks viewed the struggle for their freedom in the 1800s and for their civil rights in the 1900s as patterned after the exodus.

Salvation

Egypt symbolizes the state of being lost. The wilderness is the state of being saved, but fleshly, carnal-minded. The Promised Land is the state of being saved and Christ-minded, Spirit-filled.

Also, the wilderness is this world. The Jordan River is death. Palestine is heaven.

Passover

The Passover Lamb is Christ. Yeast removed from the household is sin. Blood on the doorpost is Christ’s blood, which saves us from death in sin.

Blood stands for life.

The writer of Hebrews examines the details of Passover carefully.

Like the remains of the animal sacrificed and carried outside the camp— Jesus died outside the city walls of Jerusalem.

When the veil in the Temple is torn from top to bottom (that is, supernaturally, not by humans), the separation between God and God’s people is removed. Now in Christ we have instant access to God.

Joshua 7 tells the horrifying story of a man’s greed. The Hebrews devoted Jericho utterly to God—in other words, killed and destroyed everything.

But Achan stole some gold, silver and a robe for himself. He was found out. He, his family, his livestock, his possessions were stoned and burned. A pile of stones was heaped up as a marker.

Achor was a place like Pearl Harbor, Auschwitz, Hiroshima, the World Trade Center.

But the prophets turned that around.

14 Therefore, I [the Lord] will now allure her [Israel],
     and bring her into the wilderness,
     and speak tenderly to her.
15 From there I will give her her vineyards,
     and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she shall respond as in the days of her youth,
     as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. 

Hosea 2:14-15 (NRSV)

9 I will bring forth descendants from Jacob,
     and from Judah inheritors of my mountains;
my chosen shall inherit it,
     and my servants shall settle there.
10 Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks,
     and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,
     for my people who have sought me. 

 Isaiah 65:9-10 (NRSV)

The Hebrew Bible was compiled and transmitted in its final stages by people who’d lost everything. The enemy had destroyed the Temple and exiled the people from their land.

But the scribes preserved the stories. They kept hope alive.

And in so doing they made our desolate places valleys of hope.

If you happened to copy anything from this site from say February 1-4, delete it! I don’t know how hackers contaminate stuff, but you might have caught something. My security software gives the site a green light for secure now.

These are restored posts:

• Exodus 2-15
• Some promises of God
• Scan it/skip it or read it closely
• Joseph Scripture Search

God Sightings One Year Bible: Tues Jan 26—Mon Feb 1

Preliminary

• Ch 2 Guilty of murder, Moses flees from Pharaoh and settles into the life of a desert shepherd in the Sinai.
• Ch 3 Moses encounters God at the burning bush. God commissions Moses to bring the people out of Egypt, and reveals the sacred name YHWH 3:15. Moses and elder brother Aaron returns to Egypt, but fails to persuade Pharaoh to let the people go.
• Ch 4 Moses’ miraculous signs persuade the Israelites.
• Ch 5 The Egyptians increase the load, bricks without straw.
• Ch 6 God reassures Moses.

Plagues

1. Water turned to blood
2. Frogs
3. Gnats (first Egyptians couldn’t duplicate)
4. Flies
5. Livestock diseased
6. Boils
7. Thunder and hail
8. Locusts
9. Darkness
10. Death of firstborn

Hardness of heart

• (9x) God hardens 4.21 future; 7.3 future; 9.12; 10.1, 20, 27; 11.10; 14.4, 8.
• (3x) Pharaoh hardens 8.15, 32; 9.34.
• (6x) Passive voice (no subject) 7.13, 14, 22; 8.19; 9.7, 35.

Romans 9:14-18 (NRSV)

¹⁴ What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! ¹⁵ For he says to Moses,
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
     and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
¹⁶ So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy. ¹⁷ For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” ¹⁸ So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses.

1.  God will always love you (Romans 8 .35-39).
2. God will always forgive you (1 John 1.9).
3. God will provide direction for your life (Proverbs 3.4-5).
4. God will hear and answer your prayers (Proverbs 15.29 and 1 John 5.14).
5. God will always be with you (Isaiah 41.10 and Matthew 28.20).
6. God will enable you to face temptation (1 Corinthians 10.15).
7. God will meet your needs (Matthew 6.25-33).

© Group Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.

You may never read closely much of the first six books of the Bible—you and 99% of faithful Bible readers as well. Don’t quit. Skip it or scan it.

Here are some nuggets to read closely:

READ

Exodus

• Ch 24, Communion with God
• Ch 32-34, Golden Calf episode
• 40.34-38 God’s glory descends on Tabernacle

Leviticus

• 9.23-24, God accepts offerings
• 10.1-4, Danger of Wrong Use of Holy Things
• Ch 16, Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur)

Numbers

• 6.22-27, the Priestly Blessing
• Ch 10-14, Catastrophe!
• Ch 16-17, Who’s the Real Priest?
• Ch 20-25, the Journey to Canaan

The story of Joseph begins Genesis 37 / Jan 18 / p. 61.

1. How was Joseph’s second dream different from his first? So what? 37.5-10
2. What nationality were the traders to whom the brothers sold Joseph? 37.25-28
3. How does God become known in the Joseph story?
4. How did Joseph resist the advances of Potiphar’s wife? Ch. 39
5. How did God relate to Joseph in prison? Ch. 39
6. According to Joseph, who can interpret dreams? So what? (Note 41.16.)
7. What do Joseph’s interpretations in prison demonstrate about him?
8. Characteristics of Pharaoh’s dreams:
   1. Cows, grain came out of Nile
   2. Blasted followed healthy
   3. Repeated
9. What personal qualities does Joseph demonstrate in the interview with Pharaoh?

10.  What do the names of Joseph’s children tell us about his outlook? 41.51-52

11.  Through testing his brothers, what does Joseph learn? Ch 42-44

12.  Does he single out Benjamin

1. To keep him, his only full brother, in Egypt?
2. To see how the brothers’ attitudes toward Jacob’s favorite might have changed?

13.  How would you evaluate Joseph’s success in light of his

1. Using a cup for divination?
2. Enslaving the starving populace?

14.  What contributed to Joseph’s mature willingness to forgive? 50.19-21

15.  What is the most important lesson in the Joseph story for you?

If you got re-directed to the Chinese sex museum the last day or two, you experienced my blog hacked.

I hope, with  God’s help and WP docs, to have corrected the problem. But the latest clean version I had was Jan 6.

So here it is, restored, I hope. I apologize to any one who was inconvenienced by this detour into lala land.