Exodus and the Law

Last Week… We saw that God chose a people to be in a special relationship with him—to trust him and not in their own ways. This was an act of grace—they did nothing to earn or deserve it. He chooses to work through messy sinful people (his only choice given the state of humanity).

Last Week… We learned that God made a covenant with Abraham to give him innumerable descendants and that his family would be blessed by God to be a blessing to the rest of the world—showing them all what he is like.

Last Week… What really stuck with you from our last time together?

Exodus and the Law

In what ways can you relate to this pattern that the Israelites lived in?

How quick are you to question or submit to authority in your life? Are you quicker to assume your own authority? Why or why not?

The number of induced abortions worldwide in 2003 was approximately 42 million. About one in five pregnancies worldwide end in abortion. Voters approved Initiative 1000 in November 2008 making Washington the second state in the union to allow medically assisted suicide.

Parting of the Red Sea Painting

Psalm 81 Sing praises to God, our strength. Sing to the God of Jacob. Sing! Beat the tambourine. Play the sweet lyre and the harp. Blow the ram’s horn at new moon, and again at full moon to call a festival! For this is required by the decrees of Israel; it is a regulation of the God of Jacob. He made it a law for Israel when he attacked Egypt to set us free.

I heard an unknown voice say, “Now I will take the load from your shoulders; I will free your hands from their heavy tasks. You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you; I answered out of the thundercloud and tested your faith when there was no water at Meribah. I heard an unknown voice say, “Now I will take the load from your shoulders; I will free your hands from their heavy tasks. You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you; I answered out of the thundercloud and tested your faith when there was no water at Meribah.

“Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings. O Israel, if you would only listen to me! You must never have a foreign god; You must not bow down before a false god. For it was I, the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things.

“But no, my people wouldn’t listen. Israel did not want me around. So I let them follow their own stubborn desires, living according to their own ideas. Oh, that my people would listen to me! Oh, that Israel would follow me, walking in my paths! How quickly I would then subdue their enemies!

How soon my hands would be upon their foes! Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him; they would be doomed forever. But I would feed you with the finest wheat. I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock.”

If what we learned today is true, how does/should it affect your life?

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

How would it affect us as a community?

How would it affect others… our neighborhood, our city?

WALKING IT OUT… Engage the Story more deeply with each other this week.