Key Learning from Sunday School
February 2025
Youth Sunday School (The Book of Exodus)
The Book of Exodus begins where Genesis leaves off as God deals with His chosen people. It traces the events from the time Israel entered Egypt as guests of Joseph until they were eventually living under the cruel bondage of slavery.
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⁃ The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart
• God giving Pharaoh over to his sinful desires (Romans 1:24)
• Only to show God’s purpose, not to damn Pharaoh (Romans 9:17)
⁃ The Plaque of Frogs
• Heqet - Egyptian goddess of fertility & birth
• God has no limits (His reach is beyond the nile and into every home).
• Frogs can cross over between worlds (and so can God)
• God controls life
⁃ Moses intercedes on behalf of Pharaoh to remove the plague
• Egyptian Magicians ability either by Illusion or demonic powers are ineffective before God
⁃ Moses, “God to Pharaoh” - God’s agent; A challenge to Egyptian deities
⁃ Staff’s into snakes; Aaron’s staff vs the Magician’s staffs; God triumphs
• Egyptian snake gods:
• Nehebkau associated with the afterlife and protection.
• Wadjet, was known as the protector of Lower Egypt
⁃ Water of the Nile into blood
• Hapi is the Egyptian god of the Nile, who brought fertility to the land symbolizing nourishment and abundance
• 1st plague has the Nile bringing death
⁃ Uncircumcised lips - I am sinful. (See Isaiah 6:7)
⁃ Moses before Pharaoh to demonstrate it is God not Pharaoh who will free the slaves
⁃ Descriptions of God
• Reminder to Moses of the Promises of God through Abraham, Isaac, to Jacob.
• A promise made by God through Moses: We will be His people and He will be our God; Ultimately fulfill in Christ Jesus
⁃ Genealogy of Aaron and Moses
• Establishes Moses as one of the Hebrews and not an outsider
• Mose’s mom was also his great-aunt
• Connects Moses to the Abrahamic covenant
⁃ Bricks; arduous work, the heavy burden placed upon the people
⁃ Sabbath Day worship promotes human dignity; affirms freedom; affirms family
⁃ Moses intercedes for the people with God
- Exodus: gods and Kings - Does Hollywood even even bother to read the source material?
⁃ 1st Sigh: Throw down staff, turning into a snake, grab tail & return to staff
• Moses runs away
• Pharaoh’s symbol of sovereignty was a snake
• God reaches out to yank Pharaoh chain and put him in his place
⁃ 2nd Sigh: hand to leprous and then cleans
• Impurity of Egypt
• God has the power to purify
⁃ 3rd Sign: Water into blood
• The Nile is the source of life
• God has the power to take away this source
⁃ Hardening of Pharaoh’s heart was not for his damnation but to reveal God’s sovereignty
⁃ Many unanswered questions with Zipporah actions
• Moses wasn’t told to take his family
• Uncircumcised a sign of rebellion; to be cut off (Genesis 17:14)
• Bridegroom of blood: the shedding of blood saved Moses
⁃ Mose, as a Hebrew was circumcise on the 8th day.
⁃ Angel of the LORD
• taken to mean the pre-incarnate Christ
• Used when God is speaking
⁃ Angel of God
• Used when God does something
⁃ Name of God “I AM WHO I AM”
• There is no comparison between God and the deities of the Egyptians
• See Jesus’ I AM statements in the Gospel of John
• Only God can make something Holy
⁃ God will redeem us and make us whole
⁃ Our understanding of Exodus is influenced by Hollywood.
- Pharaoh’s edict was to cull the Hebrews and not circumvent a prophecy
• Moses, nursed by his own mother, may have always known he was a Hebrew
• His pedigree (a non-human) may have made him an outsider in Pharaoh’s court
• The working class (Hebrews) did not accept him as they saw him as part of the ruling class
⁃ Midianites were the descendants of Abraham and his 3rd wife (counting Hagar), Keturah (Genesis 25:1-4)
• A priest of Midan; The God of Midian = the God of Abraham?
• The four part promise made to Abraham & Sarah (Name, Nation, Blessing, Home [Genesis 12:2-3,7]) was passed down through Isaac, and Jacob
• The Hebrews were God’s chosen people, not His only believers
⁃ 70 descendants of Jacob who went into Egypt
• Scripture lays no stress upon the number itself.
• 70 is likely a rounded number
• LXX - Septuagint
• Named after a rounded number of translators assigned
• Greek translation of the Hebrew Text
• Translation predates Christ by 300 years
• Christ quotes the LXX 90% of the time in the new testament
⁃ Ancient Egypt
• Exodus likely during the New Kingdom period (3rd of the 3 golden ages)
• One of the Pharaohs in the 20th Dynasty are a likely choice
⁃ The edict to kill the sons of the Hebrews is mirrored in the Book of Matthew with the slaughter of the innocence in Bethlehem