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My Declaration of Dependence
When Life Takes a Turn for the Bitter—I Will Turn to God for Help!


Exodus 1:6-14 (Monday)
“Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them. Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. "Look," he said to his people, "the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country." So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 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 hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.” (NIV)
1) Let’s look at Genesis 15, because this is where this story (and our own) truly begins! In this chapter, we find our God making covenant with Abram! Oh, much can be said about “covenant”! A covenant was (is) a binding agreement, (very much like the legal contracts we enter into today). The most serious and binding of all covenants were the covenants “cut” in blood! Some translations do use the word “made, or make” covenant. The true translation is “cut” and it comes from the fact that blood was a necessary requirement for this solemn type of covenant. The shedding of blood made the covenant even more binding—far more serious in nature! Naturally, the people “cutting” the covenant were not going to jump upon a sacrificial altar themselves! Although, in some covenants the partners did cut parts of their bodies and mingle their blood. It is quite interesting how this idea of covenant has been carried down through the ages. When you think about it, it is very much like we used to do in becoming “blood” sisters or brothers! Remember, how, even as a child, you became forever connected by the mingling of your blood with the friend(s) you cared so much about? It was serious to us as children, and it was and is very serious to God! Fortunately, during Abram’s time, the innocent life of an animal or animals was substituted. The animals were slain and their bodies halved—“cut” and placed in such a way so as the agreeing partners could actually walk through the pieces! We all know that life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11), so when two or more people walked through the split, “bloody” pieces, they were in essence saying to one another, “God do the same to whichever partner breaks this covenant!” The “same” meaning of course, the “cutting” or death of the animals would eventually fall upon the erring partner! Oh, not by the offended person’s own hand, but by the judgment of God faithfully demonstrated between the agreeing parties! Legal and binding indeed!
a) Was covenant cut before or after Abraham “believed” God?
b) When was Abram declared “righteous”?
c) What was behind those birds of prey?
d) Who walked through the animal pieces in this covenant? Doesn’t it take two to make or “cut” covenant? (Note: The smoking firepot was God!)
2) Oh, read Hebrews 6:13-15! God did not make or “cut” this covenant with Abraham to seal his right standing with God! Abram was in right standing the very second he chose to believe God’s word! God “cut” covenant so that Abram would know God’s faithfulness! The penalty for failure to live up to this binding covenant fell on God alone! It was not binding in anyway upon Abraham’s faithfulness, but upon God’s! Beloved, our belief and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ finds its roots, its very foundation in this covenant with Abram! It was a “foreshadow” of our new “covenant” with Christ—the God Man, who suffered, died and rose again! And, having fulfilled God’s requirement of holiness and purity (in His own very human flesh), in keeping with God’s holy law (the Ten Commandments)—Jesus, the perfect, blameless sacrifice—boldly walked straight into the throne room of God, with His own blood in hand, saying, “It is finished!” Man, you and I, have been fully restored to God through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ! Glory! Glory! Glory!
a) Oh, strive to be holy, yes, but, don’t let satan lie and, like a “bird of prey” convince you that God’s covenant is for everyone else by you! No, God’s faithfulness and promises cannot and will not be broken! Why? Oh, Hebrews 6:18 holds that precious key!
3) In making this covenant, God revealed something to Abram. What was it? Genesis 15:13-16.
4) Did Abram’s descendants do anything that led them into captivity? How did this 400 year bondage take place. Go back and read about Joseph in Genesis, chapters 37-50 (Oh, I know it is lengthy, but you need this foundation!) So, in Genesis 46:31-34, we find that Jacob and his sons come to live with Joseph in Egypt and are given a portion of the land called Goshen! Very furtile, very beautiful part of Egypt, but still Egypt! There they stayed until this “new king’ arrived on the scene (Exodus 6:1!)
5) Why didn’t God just give Abram the land and let his people multiply there? See Genesis 15:16?
6) Have you ever been in God’s perfect will and yet, were not walking in His promises to you? Please share!
7) Joseph, his father, Jacob and all his brothers had long since passed away! Do you think the people remembered God’s promise to Abram 400 years prior. Why or why not?
8) Do you think this “new king” truly had reason to fear the Hebrew children? Why or why not?
9) Why did God allow the oppression and persecution come to his children?
10) What happened to his people under the oppression?
Exodus 1:15-22 (Tuesday)
“The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, "When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it 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. Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: "Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” (NIV)
1) These midwives knew they could be killed for direct disobedience to the king! Why did they not obey this edict? (Acts 5:29)
2) Obviously, the king didn’t want to annihilate this entire race of people! What possible reason(s) would this “new king” have in keeping these people in bondage?
3) Well, one thing is for certain, this “new king” did not want them to continue multiplying! Sound familiar? How does this relate to our world today?
4) God bless those midwives! Why would the “new king” believe they mothers were so much “sturdier”?
5) Some have voiced a concern that there seems to be a contradiction with God blessing these midwives because it is assumed that these women out and out lied. However, it is more probable that they just decided not to go to the women in labor until after the birth—then they could speak in complete truth! Regardless, these brave women displayed a reverent fear of God—not Pharaoh!
Exodus 2:1-10 (Wednesday)
“Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. "This is one of the Hebrew babies," she said. Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?" "Yes, go," she answered. And the girl went and got the baby's mother. Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you." So the woman took the baby and nursed him. When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, "I drew him out of the water.” (NIV)
1) This word for describing this child as “fine” can perhaps be better translated, “special”. His parents noted something unique about him. Now, all of us think our children and grand children are special, but do you think this “uniqueness” went even further? Explain.
2) What is starting to develop in a three month old infant?
3) Was this mother sending her child to his certain death? What special quality was she exhibiting?
4) Why send the sister?
5) Oh, Pharaoh’s daughter knew the Hebrew boys were to be drowned! What moved her to save him!
6) Coincidence or divine providence? This child nursed at his mother’s breast! What an awesome, loving God we serve! And, she got paid for the joy! Wow!
7) Back in this time weaning took place at 3 years of age. What do you think this mother did her best to instill into her small child during this 3 year period? What would you have been whispering in your child’s ear, knowing you would most likely be forever separated?
8) From poverty to son of the daughter of Pharaoh! Imagine the confusion!
Exodus 2:11-17 (Thursday)
“One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?" The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and thought, "What I did must have become known." When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock. Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.” (NIV)
1) Well, I imagine one thing that Moses’ true mother told him was that the 400 years was up and God was going to deliver his children! Did she whisper in his ear, “Is it you, Moses? Are you the promised one”? That thought, that seed must have been planted over and over in Moses’ young heart and mind. What evidence do you find that maybe, just maybe, Moses felt that he just might be that deliverer?
2) Why glance this way and that? Someone always sees! Who?
3) Moses had a heart for his people, but as the man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us”? Unfortunately, this is a perfect example of trying to do something in your own power! What was missing in Moses that he could not yet step into his God-appointed role of deliverer and judge of God’s people?
4) Twice, Moses has tried to intervene for his people! How did Moses react when he found out he was “known”?
5) You know, we have to face ourselves, our pasts, our sins and there is only one place to go—Oh, go to the Well! Drink freely of the Living Waters and live!
6) What is the first thing Moses does for this priest’s daughters? Oh, God is at work here—building upon that seed!
Exodus 2:18-25 (Friday)
“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?" he 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, saying, "I have become an alien 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.” (NIV)
1) Seven daughters and one sturdy man—no wonder these girls’ father invited Moses to stay with him! Really, do you think he might have sensed something different about this foreigner? (Midianites were nomads who had settle around Mount Sinai.)
2) Moses was around 40 years of age when he reached Midian. Educated and raise in royalty he becomes a lowly shepherd! What other great shepherds can you think of that are mentioned in the Bible?
3) I love that this week’s Transformation has to say about Moses:
--Moses spent his first forty years thinking that he was a somebody.
--his middle years learning that he was a nobody,
--and his later years discovering what mighty deeds God could perform through a nobody!
4) Gershom means, alien, a foreigner—one who is not a citizen in the land he dwells! Read Ephesians 2:19 and Hebrews 11:11-16! Oh, dear ones! This world is not our home!
5) Had not God heard the cries of the His children all along?
6) Had they cried out before their bondage and harsh slavery?
7) What did it mean that God “remembered”?
8) Had God somehow been preoccupied for 400-430 years and only now felt concern for his children?
9) What is it about us humans? Why do we always seem to wait until we are to the point of inner groaning, literally gasping and in terrible need before we cry out to the Living God?