When you turn the page in your Bible from Genesis chapter 50 to Exodus chapter 1 you have just flipped over four hundred years. This is how long Israel had been in Egypt. Joseph and the Pharaoh who knew them are long dead. The people of Israel all lived together in the same geographical location.
The present ruler of Egypt saw Israel as a potential threat to his Nation?s security ? foreigners who might one day rebel against Egypt.
The people of Israel had now grown to many thousands and thousands of people.
In a cruel plot to subdue the people of Israel, the Pharaoh subjects them to hard manual labour and later decreed that all their male children should be killed at birth.
During this time Moses is born. He was rescued miraculously from certain death and brought up by Pharaoh?s daughter in the Egyptian household. Moses would have received the best education available in those days.
Moses still identified with his own people and an act to help one of his people lures him to kill an Egyptian. News of this soon spreads about and for fear of his life Moses flees to the land of Midian. By now he is forty years old.
Forty years later God appears to Moses in a burning bush. He introduces Himself as ?I AM WHO I AM? and tells Moses to go and deliver the people of Israel from Egypt. Aaron, Moses brother, is to be Moses spokesman.
God is with Moses and uses ten devastating plagues to convince Egypt to let Israel leave. The last plague involves the slaying of a lamb by the people of Israel and the smearing of its blood on their doorpost. This is known as the Passover. An event that Israel remembers and celebrates till today. That night God destroys all the first-born sons of the Egyptians. Pharaoh lets Israel go.
Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt and miraculously through the Red Sea (or sea of reeds) and into the wilderness.
God miraculously feed and cared for the people of Israel in the wilderness. On Mount Sinai He made a covenant with them. The same covenant he promised to Abraham. At this point the Israel become the people of God. They will reap His benefits when they obey Him and His judgement when they disobey Him. Unfortunately they do more disobeying than obeying.
Lessons
Exodus is about deliverance.
God is able to set us free.
Today Jesus is our Passover lamb. He brings us out of bondage like He brought Israel out of Egypt. It might take a while for the Pharaoh in your life to give way but He eventually will when God is on the case.
Be confident in the God who is more than enough.