Yesterday’s post was on exegesis, the process of analyzing scripture for interpretation and explanation. Scripture requires context for understanding. It’s important to know who is the author of the book of the Bible we are reading; who is their target audience; and why the author is telling them the things we read.

We need to read and understand the Bible for ourselves.

The other questions we should answer is:
Who are the characters?
Who can they represent?
Answering these two questions and placing myself within the narrative of the Biblical stories has lead to the most transformation, edification, and emotional maturing, that I’ve ever experienced. I become the Biblical character and I try to understand why they are making the choices they make. This isn’t in a grandiose way; but, in the “what am I supposed to get from this story’ way. This has also been the place where the false notion of a distant and hands-off God, I thought He was, has been replaced with a close and intimate God that is very concerned and loves His creation. US!

It is great to go to church and fellowship. However, our growth and maturing with God is developed and nurtured through our own intimate journey with Him. My journey happens on the side of my bed. It isn’t anything extravagant and grand. It is just a place and time space, I created to meet God. I read the Bible, journal, and pray.

So…I thought I’d walk us through the Biblical stories that we all grow up learning, because those stories are very relevant to our everyday life!

The God of Exits:

“These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.”
Exodus 1:1-5 NIV

The book of Genesis ends with Joseph (one of the 12 tribes of Israel) being a top official and working for Pharoah. His position allows the eleven brothers, their father, and all their families to escape the famine in their land and to go to Egypt.

How is this relevant to my life? I am one of the twelve brothers and I am experiencing a drought in my life. An area of my life that used to feed me/ had my provisions, no longer has anything I need. God is a god of results. He has created a place that I need to go to. What do I notice further? Spaces that we are fed in can become barren and are temporary.

“Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation dies, but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.”
Exodus 1:6-7 NIV

Exodus comes from the Greek word exodos aigyptou, which means going out of Egypt. So, when we read the book of Exodus, we are reading about how to make exits. Joseph and his brothers are in this place that has all the provisions for them to thrive (Egypt) and they do just that. They begin to grow.

Bring this environment and make it personal. This represents all the environments that we have in our lives that make us grow in our personhood. This is work, education, church, family and friend groups. This is all the places we are in that make us a better person.

“Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. ‘Look,’ he said to his people, ‘the Israelites have become far too numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.'”
Exodus 1:8-10 NIV

A new Pharoah comes to power and he is worried about Israel’s growth.

Make this personal. The places that have contributed to our growing and maturing, the leaders and the people in those places are now insecure about our growth.

“So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharoah. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.”
Exodus 1:11-14 NIV

Pharoah doesn’t like the Israelites growth. Why? He believes that their growth is a threat to his kingdom. What does he do?  He forces them into slavery. What is the Israelites response? They continued to grow.

The environment that had their provisions is now an environment of harsh treatment and oppression. Why are they experiencing harsh treatment? Because they are growing as people. Why is Pharoah willing to mistreat the Israelites because he is insecure (that is what fear is) about their growth and  their harsh treatment they are receiving has absolutely nothing to do with them as people. That is the story of why people mistreat other people.

The Israelites continued to grow despite their mistreatment. Why? Because that is what God wants us to do. Harsh environments are character development. God allows it because there is a skillset we need. If we go into harm believing that their is something about who we are as a person that causes the mistreatment, then we will incur pain and trauma. It will make us want to shrink and get smaller. Which is what Pharoah wanted. The goal of the pharoah was to control them and make them smaller.

However God is clear; our job is to grow stronger.

“Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son.”
Exodus 2:1 NIV

“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.”
Exodus 2:23-25 NIV

God hears their cry for help and He is concerned. God cares about us. But before their cry, the man that is going to help them is already born and growing in the life experiences he will use to free them.

What used to trip me up is I would always be stuck on the question, “Why does harsh and oppressive environments exist?” However, that is the point of scripture to unwind the belief system that is leaving us stuck. The Bible is meant to come alive in the season of life you need it in and in the perspective you need. It’s why we have to read the Bible for ourselves.

What I get from these passages is God already knows the points in life that will cause us harm. He hears us, is concerned, and He also has our help on the way. If we believe in a loving God that is concerned about us, then we have to  let go of the way we think help will show up. Sometimes help will be skill building; harmful environments exist because God wants us to develop the skill to handle the environment. Sometimes the help will look like God rescues us by sending us help. Sometimes, like in the case for Israel, God is waiting for us to cry out to him and draw close to him again. We have to let go of the need to control the outcome and instead focus on what we are meant to get from the experience.

“Go to Pharoah and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go. I will send a plague of frogs on your whole country. The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the house of officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. The frogs will come up on you and your people and all your officials.'”
Exodus 8:1-4 NIV

I skipped Moses. Moses is the baby being born above. He needs his own post. Moses is an adult and now God has sent him back to Egypt to free the Israelites. Here, Moses and Aaron have gone to Pharoah and are trying to free the people from Egypt. Pharoah has refused and God unleashes a set of ten plagues on the people.

Why the plagues? It’s to display God’s Power. Sometimes God allows things to happen because it gives people a close experience with God. Not only did Egypt experience the ten plagues, the surrounding nations heard about it and believed in the power of God. Some key players that weren’t Israelites made it into Jesus’ lineage and it was purely from the display of God’s power.

Our experience is a testimony for non-believers. Our experience is designed to increase our faith.

“During the night Pharoah summoned Moses and Aaron and said, ‘Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you said, and go. And also bless me.”
Exodus 12:31-32 NIV

The book of Exodus is the story of when we need to exit places. When the place that God sends us to for our provisions becomes the place of harm and oppression, God allows us to leave. God is a loving God that is concerned about us. God allows harm because it is meant to grow us. God allows harm because it is a display of His Power for people that need to experience God.

“All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV