GOD in the Old Testament - Exodus - Part 4

Exodus 4:27-31

    The LORD said to Aaron, "Go into the wilderness to meet Moses." So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. Then Moses told Aaron everything the LORD has sent him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform. 

    Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything the LORD has said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.  (see all Exodus 4)

 

Exodus 5:1-4  

    Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.' " 

    Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go."

    Then they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword."

    But the king of Egypt said, "Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!"

 

Exodus 5:8-9  

"But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don't reduce the quota. They are lazy, that is why they are crying out, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies."  (see all Exodus 5)

 

Exodus 6:2-3  

    God also appeared to Moses, "I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself fully known to them." 

 

Exodus 6:7-8  

" 'I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession, I am the LORD.' "  (see all Exodus 6) 

  

(parentheses are mine) 

 

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®, Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Limited to 15 verses per post.

GOD in the Old Testament - Exodus - Part 3

Exodus 3:16-19

    "Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers--the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob--appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites--a land flowing with milk and honey.'

    "The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.' But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him."  

(see all Exodus 3)

 

Exodus 4:1-5  

Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The LORD did not appear to you'?"

    Then the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?"

    "A staff," he replied.

    The LORD said, "Throw it on the ground."

    Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the LORD said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. "This," said the LORD, "is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob--has appeared to you."

 

Exodus 4:14-16  

    Then the LORD's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as through he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.

 

Exodus 4:19-20   

    Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead." So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.  

(Exodus 4 continues tomorrow.) 

  

(parentheses are mine) 

 

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®, Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Limited to 15 verses per post.

GOD in the Old Testament - Exodus - Part 2

Exodus 3:1-15

    Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight--why the bush does not burn up."

    When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!"

    And Moses said, "Here I am."

    "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

    Then the LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey--the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

    But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

    And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."

    Moses said to God, "Suppose I go the the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what should I tell them?"

    God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Isrealites, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob--has sent me to you.' 

    "This is my name forever,

        the name you shall call me

        from generation to generation."

(Exodus 3 continues tomorrow) 

  

(parentheses are mine) 

 

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®, Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Limited to 15 verses per post.

GOD in the Old Testament - Exodus - Part 1

Exodus 1:15-21

    The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, "When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live." The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, "Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?"

    The midwives answered Pharaoh, "Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive."

    So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.  

(see all Exodus 1)

 

Exodus 2:18-25  

    When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, "Why have you returned so early today?" 

    They answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock."

    "And where is he?" Reuel asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat."

    Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom (meaning "a foreigner there"), saying, "I have become a foreigner in a foreign land."

    During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.  (see all Exodus 2) 

   

(parentheses are mine) 

 

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®, Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Limited to 15 verses per post.

GOD in the Old Testament - Genesis - Part 25

Genesis 49:22-26  

"Joseph is a fruitful vine,

    a fruitful vine near a spring,

    whose branches climb over a wall.

With bitterness archers attacked him;

    they shot at him with hostility.

But his bow remained steady,

    his strong arm stayed limber,

because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob,

    because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

because of your father's God, who helps you,

    because of the Almighty who blesses you

with blessings of the skies above,

    blessings of the deep springs below,

    blessings of the breast and womb.

Your father's blessings are greater

    than the blessings of the ancient mountains,

    than the bounty of the age-old hills.

Let all these rest on the head of Joseph,

    on the brow of the prince among his brothers." 

    (see all Genesis 49)

 

Genesis 50:16-21

So they sent word to Joseph, saying, "Your father left these instructions before he died: 'This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.' Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father." When their message came to him Joseph wept.

    His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. "We are your slaves," they said.

    But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, saving the lives of many. So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children." And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

 

Genesis 50:24-26  

    Then Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." And Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath and said, "God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place." 

    So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.  

(see all Genesis 50) 

  

(parentheses are mine) 

 

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®, Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Limited to 15 verses per post.

GOD in the Old Testament - Genesis - Part 24

Genesis 48:1-4  

     Some time later Joseph was told, "Your father is ill." So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him. When Jacob was told, "Your son Joseph has come to see you," Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed.

    Jacob said to Joseph, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me and said to me, 'I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.' "

 

Genesis 48:8-9  

    When Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he asked, "Who are these?"

    "They are the sons God has given me here," Joseph said to his father.

    Then Israel said, "Bring them to me so I may bless them."

 

Genesis 48:11  

    Israel said to Joseph, "I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too."

 

Genesis 48:15-22  

    Then he blessed Joseph and said,

"May the God before whom my fathers

    Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully,

the God who has been my shepherd

    all my life to this day,

the Angel who has delivered me from all harm

    --may he bless these boys.

May they be called by my name

    and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,

and may they increase greatly

    on the earth."

    When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim's head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. Joseph said to him, "No, my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head." 

    But his father refused and said, "I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become groups of nations." He blessed them that day and said, 

    "In your name will Israel pronounce this blessing:

        'May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.' "

So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.

    Then Israel said to Joseph, "I am about to die, but God will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers. And to you I give one more ridge of land than to your brothers, the ridge I took from the Amorites with my sword and bow." (Shechem)

(see all Genesis 48)   

  

(parentheses are mine) 

 

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®, Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Limited to 15 verses per post.

GOD in the Old Testament - Genesis - Part 23

Genesis 43:19-23

    So they went up to Joseph's steward and spoke to him at the entrance to the house. "We beg your pardon, our lord," they said, "we came down here the first time to buy food. But at the place where we stopped for the night we opened our sacks and each of us found his silver--the exact weight--in the mouth of his sack. So we have brought it back with us. We have also brought additional silver with us to buy food. We don't know who put our silver in our sacks."

    "It's all right," he said, "Don't be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks; I received your silver." Then he brought Simeon out to them. 

 

Genesis 43:29-30  

    As he looked about and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother's son, he asked, "Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about?" And he said, "God be gracious to you, my son." Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there.

(see all Genesis 43 and 44)

 

Genesis 45:6-9  

"For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve you for a remnant on the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

    "So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. Now hurry back to my father and say to him, 'This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don't delay.' "

(see all Genesis 45)

 

Genesis 46:1-4  

    So Israel set out with all that was his, and when he reached Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

    And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, "Jacob! Jacob!"

    "Here I am," he replied.

    "I am God, the God of your father," he said. "Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph's own hand will close your eyes."

(see all Genesis 46 and 47)     

  

(parentheses are mine) 

 

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®, Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Limited to 15 verses per post.