Exodus

Exodus begins with the descendants of Abraham living in captivity. Their numbers had grown, just as God had promised, but they were being oppressed.

God always keeps His word.

During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and remembered his covenant with Abraham and with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel - and God knew. Exodus 2:23-24 ESV

Many times when we read Exodus, we focus in on what Moses did. We need to remember that the Bible is God's story.

God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. I established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Exodus 6:2-5

God goes further to say "I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. Exodus 6:6-7

God does many miracles to demonstrate to His people that He is a mighty God. They see the plagues that fall upon the Egyptians. The miraculously cross the Red Sea. God provides water... from a rock.

God also give the people 10 rules to live by - we call them the 10 Commandments.

1. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.
2. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
3. “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
4. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
5. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
6. “You shall not murder.
7. “You shall not commit adultery.
8. “You shall not steal.
9. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”  (Exodus 20:4-17 ESV)

5 laws that govern how we should interact with God. 5 laws to govern how we interact with others. Love is the thing that binds these two together. Lover God, love each other.

Exodus ends with God Himself making a presence with His people to lead them into Canaan.

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.

(Exodus 40:34-38 ESV)

God's desire has always been to be with the people that He created. Sometimes, we get so caught up in our own world that we forget that. Going into the weekend, let's remember that our God doesn't dwell in a tent that we can't enter. He dwells in our hearts in the person of His Holy Spirit.