Exiting Egypt: Chapter One –
A People Who Refused to Die
By Dennis Lee Part 1 of 5
Exodus 1:1-22
The doctor and his nurse responded to the emergency call by a local farmer. His wife was desperately ill. The doctor, with his familiar black bag in hand was ushered upstairs to where the farmer’s wife lay, while the farmer and his family waited anxiously downstairs.
After a few minutes the nurse came down and nervously asked for a can opener. Soon after that the doctor came down all tense and visibly upset and asked for a hammer and chisel.
By this time the farmer was beside himself and unable to contain himself any longer asked,
“Tell me, Doc, whatever in the world is wrong with my wife?”
The doctor replied, “Don’t know yet. I can’t get my bag opened.”
One of the reasons why so many people don’t understand the Bible, and why the Bible hasn’t come alive for many is that they haven’t opened up the bag yet. They haven’t the key to let them in.
Tonight, let me suggest the key, and that is the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God, or God breathed. The Holy Spirit is called the breath of
God, and so, to fully understand what God’s word has for our lives, we have to first go to the key holder, the Holy Spirit and ask Him to open up God’s word for us.
But I believe that this is a double lock system. The first key is that of the Holy Spirit, but there is a second key in opening up God’s word for our lives, and let me give you what I see it as being, and that is our need to put ourselves into the story. When we read the Scriptures we usually do so as spectators, but when we enter in as participants, then God’s word becomes alive and active, sharper than that two edged sword.
As it involves the book of Exodus, the word Exodus means “deliverance,” “exit,” or “a way out.” This title was not the original title for the book. It was the beginning words of the book,
“And these are the names of,” and then it was shortened to “Names.”
The name Exodus came from the Latin Vulgate’s translation of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. What they did was to take the word from Exodus 19:1 which says that the Israel had “gone forth” or “tes exodou,” hence, “exodus.”
But going back to this idea of becoming participants, what Israel’s journey means to us is our own exodus from the bondages of this world and our own spiritual journey out of the bondages of sin into the freedom of forgiveness and the full inheritance that we have as children of God through Jesus Christ, and the New Covenant we enter into through our belief in Him.
To be participants we need to take Paul’s admonition to heart when he said,
These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come (1 Cor. 10:11 NIV)
Now, to put ourselves into the story in tonight’s study there are four words that take us through this chapter that speaks about a people who refused to die.
