Readers Guide: “The Word for Today” Tuesday, October 2, 2012 Read – Exodus 1 & 2 The first thing that is important to recognize as we begin to read the book of Exodus is that about 400 years have gone by – 400 years is a long time! The Bible is completely silent about those years. I don’t know about you but that is surprising to me – maybe even troubling. Did nothing of any importance happen during those years? Was the “covenant relationship” silent too? What was God doing? Of course there is no way to answer any of those questions – and they are not earth-shattering questions but they do give us something to ponder. When we do pick up the story, which is skillfully linked to the story in Genesis, we find out that much has changed. The Egyptians who mourned with the Israelites the deaths of Jacob and Joseph have now forgotten all about them – they do not know Joseph, and his contribution to save the nation from famine. And we also learn that the Israelites, small in number at the beginning, have grown into quite a group of people – by the end of the story we will learn that there are 600,000 men plus women and children. That is no small number! One of the marvels in the story is that they have maintained their identity as children of Abraham. Something must have been happening during those 400 years after all – we just don’t have the story. The tensions in the story are immediately lifted up – the Egyptians find the Israelites to be a threat and are seeking to exterminate them. This is the first “holocaust” but unfortunately it will not be the last. As Christians what we need to hear in this story is first of all the threat to God’s people – but secondly this story is mirrored in Matthew’s telling of the story of the birth of Jesus. As Matthew tells us about Jesus and Herod and the killing of children of Bethlehem and even the dreaming Joseph and the flight to Egypt he wants us to be thinking about this story. Perhaps the most important words in the story that unfolds are written in the final verses of chapter 2 – “God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” God remembered! God raised up Moses who birth story is told just before we are told of this remembering of God. That story has connection with the stories in Genesis too – the “ark” that brought Moses to safety upon the water is reminiscent of the “ark” that rescued Noah and his family in the flood. A powerful theme is beginning to emerge.