A Story of God's Perseverance (Exodus 13:11-22)

“Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun,
         Which was my sin, though it were done before?
Wilt thou forgive that sin, through which I run,
         And do run still, though still I do deplore?
                When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
                        For I have more.

Wilt thou forgive that sin which I have won
         Others to sin, and made my sin their door?
Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun
         A year or two, but wallow’d in, a score?
                When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
                        For I have more.

I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun
         My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;
But swear by thyself, that at my death thy Son
         Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore;
                And, having done that, thou hast done;
                        I fear no more.”

—John Donne, “A Hymn to God the Father”

A Story of God's Perseverance (Exodus 13:11-22)
Rev. Nathan Barczi

God’s Distinction Between Egypt and Israel Defined (Exodus 12:29-42)

“The importance of the teaching of the faith within believing families is an Old Testament tradition (Deut 4:9–10; 6:4–9, etc.) that needs to be reemphasized in every generation of the Christian church. We, too, are a people of memory and hope, for it is memory that generates hope. When Israel ‘forgot’—as the prophets accused them—they went astray. When Christians ‘forget,’ the same thing happens. We simply lose the plot. We forget who we are, to whom we belong, and what story we are supposed to be in.”

—Christopher Wright, The Story of God Bible Commentary: Exodus

God’s Distinction Between Egypt and Israel Defined (Exodus 12:29-42)
Rev. Bradley Barnes

What Does It Mean? (Exodus 12:21-28)

“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the LORD our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.’”

—Deuteronomy 6:20-21

What Does It Mean? (Exodus 12:21-28)
Rev. Nathan Barczi

Who Is the Lord? (Exodus 7:14-18; 10:21-29)

“Perfect power does not absorb, exclude or overwhelm and dispossess other dependent powers and agents, but precisely the opposite: omnipotent power creates and perfects creaturely capacity and movement. … what God in his perfect wisdom, power and goodness causes is creatures who are themselves causes. The idea whose spell must be broken is that God is a supremely forceful agent in the same order of being as creatures, acting upon them and so depriving them of movement.”

—John Webster, “Love is Also a Lover of Life”

Who Is the Lord? (Exodus 7:14-18; 10:21-29)
Rev. Nathan Barczi

The Firstborn Is The LORD’s (Exodus 4:21-26)

“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

—Romans 8:15-17

The Firstborn Is The LORD’s (Exodus 4:21-26)
Rev. Nathan Barczi

Moses's First Impressions of God (Exodus 3:1-22)

“… the wonder that draws Moses aside, and opens his ear, is not the seeming impossibility of a fire that is not fiery, nor a bush that is not God being yet at once divine. The wonder is that the Lord God draws near and the creature does not die away.”

— Katherine Sonderegger, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1: The Doctrine of God, 84

Moses's First Impressions of God (Exodus 3:1-22)
Rev. Bradley Barnes

God's Pleasure in His Provision (Exodus 2:1-10)

“Though there be no light for us, but in the beams, yet we may by the beams, see the sun, which is the fountain of it. Though all our refreshment actually lies in the streams, yet by them, we are lead up onto the fountain. Jesus Christ, in respect of the love of the Father, is but the beam, the stream; where in, though actually all our light, our refreshment lies. Yet by him we are led to the fountain, the sum of eternal love itself. Would believers exercise themselves here in, they would find it a matter of no small spiritual improvement in their walking with God.”

—John Owen, Communion with God

God's Pleasure in His Provision (Exodus 2:1-10)
Rev. Bradley Barnes