Jim posted my most recent sermon on Exodus 1. I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I would "warm up" (you can't dive into these things too quickly :-) by posting the study guide that goes with the sermon. The study guides I write are designed to help you "chew" (or meditate) on the passage for 5 days of quiet times after you hear the sermon. That's realistic - very few people make it every day.

I noodled with several sermon titles before I finally settled on “Reversal of Fortune”. It reflects the idea in the text that what appears big (Egypt and the Pharaoh) is actually small. What appears small (faithful obedience of the Hebrew midwives) is actually huge in God's plan. Prior to settling on the "Reversal of Fortune" title, I considered “Honey, I Shrunk the Pharaohs” because the Pharaoh here is nameless and the Hebrew midwives are named. “Wishing for Life Interrupted”, because this is the "in-between time", when for a couple of hundred years it appears God is silent when He is actually working through the faithful obedience of His faithful servants. Life had gotten very “daily” in the several hundred years since Joseph and the rising persecution was beginning to grind them down.

                  STUDY GUIDE FOR EXODUS 1:1-22 
                               “Reversal of Fortune”

       "Faith is seeing the invisible, but not the non-existent." — A. W. Tozer

Day 1: Who went to Egypt with his family? (1:1)  What were the names of the family members who went to Egypt? (1:2-5)
    NOTE: Nearly three hundred years have elapsed since his death and the end of Genesis. To display the power of a new dynasty of pharaohs, a massive building program is begun in the fertile delta. The foreigners, called Israelites, are shepherds of a religion that sacrificed bulls, regarded as sacred by the Egyptians.

Day 2:  How does the passage describe the growth of the people of Israel? (1:7)
    NOTE:  Verse 7 uses several verbs which occur in Gen. 1:21 f.; “multiplied greatly” literally means ‘swarmed’ the land:

Day 3:  What was the result of the ascension of the new Pharaoh? (1:8-14) Did his program have the desired effect? What is the author (Moses) telling us by relating these results?
    NOTE:  Twice here (verses 7 and 9) the author uses an interesting Hebrew word – ‘yam’ – to refer to Israel. They are now a nation, part of the fulfillment of God’s promise in the covenant.

Day 4:  What risks did Shiphrah and Puah take in answering the Pharaoh’s questions? What were they relying on when they were questioned? 917 and 21)
    NOTE:  The juxtaposition of names here seems intentional. Rameses was a city known for its beauty. Shiphrah’s name in Hebrew means ‘beauty’.

Day 5:  How did God respond to the obedience of the midwives?

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:
God was able to use suffering in the lives of the Israelites. First Corinthians 10:6 tells us that Israel’s experience is an example for us. In what way has God used suffering in your life?

Does the experience of the Israelites shed any light on your experience?

    "It was a very unequal struggle on which Pharaoh had entered; for he opposed not the Hebrews, but Jehovah. It is thus that the great ones of this world have ever spoken and acted. “Let us build a tower;” “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” “Against thy holy child Jesus, both Herod and Pontius Pilate were gathered together.” In every case, He that sits in the heavens has laughed at the boast of human pride. His cause and his people’s are one." - F.B. Meyer

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