OTC - Exodus Overview
I'm still catching up... But here are my more completed thoughts so far on Exodus 1-23. I had an interesting 4 hrs on sunday trying to get through all of exodus. Sadly when I hit chapter 23 my pen died, therefore I stopped. If this overview is helpful lemmie know and I'll post my Genesis one.
Observation
So the first 23 chapters of Exodus were about the Children of Israel in Egypt. It takes place right after the story of Joseph. Israel was "fruitful and multiplied greatly". So they started taking over Egypt and yada yada, eventually a Pharaoh came about who didn't know about how they got there or Joseph and didn't like them. Yep racism existed in bible times too. It also covered Moses and the 10 plagues God put on Egypt. Pretty popular "bible" story.
Interpretation
It says that God causes Pharaoh's heart to be hardened and that it was God's plan. So lets think about this one... God brings wonders and plagues on Egypt AND is the cause for Pharaoh's hardened heart? God could have just changed Pharaoh's heart and set his people free. So as a result of the plagues, the Israelites had harder and harder work and more and more persecution. They wanted to have Moses stoned at a few points. (rocks not weed) So you could say that God wanted His people to go through hardship. God's ultimate goal wasn't JUST to free Israel from Egypt, sure it was definately part of it, but God wanted to grow closer to his children, not just give them everything they desired. In short, God wanted His people to desire Him. We can see this both through the plagues, and the falling bread from the sky called manna when they were in the wilderness. The overall picture of the first 23 chapters of Exodus is God's deliverance of Israel.
Application
Sometimes God brings circumstances into our lives that seem to make things worse when they don't have to. It is when we see God as a small God that we don't understand. The whole popular overasked question "why bad things happen to good people"? Its cause God desires us to have a desire for Him. God will bring as many hardships into our life as needed for us to get on our knees and develope a heart for God. Every plague God sent on Egypt had negative effects on Israel till the last plague. God not only needed to deliver Israel from Egypt, but needed to deliver Israel from themselves. I dare say when hard(er) circumstances arise in life, its not necessarily a punishment, but rather a deliverance.