"Doc Notes" Exodus study 3 lesson #2

“Doc Notes” Exodus Study 3 Lesson 2

Well gentle readers,

After the holidays and your back on you new years diet how about looking again at our Old Testament study of this second book of our Pentateuch - Exodus.

In commencing the study of any book in the Bible it is well to remind ourselves that each separate book has some prominent and dominant theme which, as such, is peculiar to itself, around which everything is made to center, and of which all the details are but the amplification.

What that leading subject may be, we should make it our business to prayerfully and diligently ascertain. This can best be discovered by reading and rereading the book under review. If other students before us have published the results of their labors, it is our duty to carefully examine their findings in the light of
God’s Word, and either verify or disprove. Yet, concerning this there are two extremes to guard against, two dangers to avoid. The first, and perhaps the one which ensnares the most, is the assumption that other students have done their work so well, it is needless for us to go over the same ground. But that is laziness and unbelief: God may be pleased to reveal to you something which He did not to them; remember that there are depths in His Word which no human sounding-line has fathomed.

The second danger is the craze for originality and the egotistical belief that we shall search more diligently than they who went before, and that therefore the results of our labors will be an improvement over all who have preceded us. This is unwarrantable conceit, from which may Divine grace deliver us all.

With some books of the Bible we can more readily discover the central theme than in others. This is noticeably the case with the first few books in the Old Testament. It is as though God had made it easier at the beginning so as to encourage us and prepare the way for some of the more complex books that follow—complex so far as their leading subjects are concerned.

Historically considered, the book of Genesis is the book of beginnings; but viewed doctrinally, it is seen to be the book which teats of election:—God choosing Shem from the three sons of Noah to be the channel from which should issue, ultimately, the Savior; God singling Out Abraham to be the father of the chosen Nation;
God passing by Ishmael and choosing Isaac; God passing by Esau and choosing Jacob; God appointing Joseph from all the twelve sons of his father to be the honored instrument for making provision against the famine, and being raised to the second place in all Egypt; finally, in the passing by of the elder of Joseph’s sons and the bestowal of the firstborn’s portion on Ephraim (48:13-20) we behold another illustration of the same principle. Yes, election is clearly the characteristic doctrine of Genesis. And this is exactly what we might expect. "God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation" (2 Thess. 2:13), hence this truth is illustrated again and again in this book which begins the Scriptures. Just as surely may we anticipate—in the light of the New Testament—the dominant theme
of Exodus.

Historically, the book of Exodus treats of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt; but viewed doctrinally, it deals with redemption. Just as the first book of the Bible teaches that God elects unto salvation, so the second instructs us how God saves, namely, by redemption. Redemption, then, is the dominant subject of Exodus. Following this, we are shown what we are redeemed for—worship, and this characterizes Leviticus, where we learn of the holy requirements of God and the gracious provisions He has made to meet these. In Numbers we have the walk and warfare of the wilderness, where we have a typical representation of our experiences as we pass through this scene of sin and trial—our repeated and excuseless failures, and God’s long-sufferance and faithfulness.

To be continued . . .

Researchers needed!

Dear Gentle Readers,
We appreciate your interest in spiritual things and you input is invaluable but we need help...your help!

We receive hundreds of questions not only from our members at this wee fellowship but from many in churches from around the country and from other countries as well. I am swamped and can use your help to answer questions that come up.

For example: "What is the apostolic linage of the "church which is His Body" can we identify the church that Christ founded? Can we trace our ancestry back to the first century apostles? How do we recognize "real Christianity" from that which is false" all sent to me by a Roman Catholic priest.

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“Doc Notes” Exodus Study Lesson 3 part 1

“Doc Notes” Exodus Study Lesson 3 part 1

“To wisdom belongs the intellectual apprehension of things eternal; to knowledge, the rational apprehension of things temporal.”

Gentle Reader,
What is needed is a depth of understanding of Scripture not only just a wee bit of surface understanding. For example many read ‘the Good Book” but never spend time thinking about what they read. Rather like prayer where we run in before the father and say gimme this that and the other but never wait for His answer. If your now smiling a wee bit then you are thinking , “Yes I have done that too”!
I have spent some time looking at the book of Exodus and wondering why at least one commentator has not picked up on this fact.

In the Book of Exodus nothing is commenced, nothing is finished. To read it, having no acquaintance with the book preceding it, or with those following, would be conscience of incompleteness. The first word “Now” might be with equal accuracy be translated “And”; which immediately suggest relation to something which has gone before. The last phrase “throughout all their journeys” [Exo 40:38 For the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys] connects with what is to follow, for the book contains no account of the journeys referred to.

These facts will help us to understand the message of this book. It is part of a larger whole, and its supreme value is its revelation of the procedure of God in human History. There are two ways in which we may think of it as a record of the doings of men, or as a record of the doings of God. To adopt the former method is to be impressed with a sense of failure. The story of Moses is one in which we find failure and weakness on Moses (mans) part, save when he was victorious and strong as a result of his relationship with God.

The greatness of a man can only be accounted for in the that illuminative word of the psalmist, “ . . . thy gentleness hath made me great” (Psm 18).

Aaron is a perpetual revelation of weakness. The story of the people is one of unceasing failure, caused by their inability to rise to the height of the revelations they received, and manifest in their eager haste to confess themselves able to keep the commandments of God, and their equally eager haste to break those commandments.

To take the other standpoint, that of Divine procedure, is to discover the line of progress, and to observe the method by which God was moving forward towards the accomplishment of an ultimate purpose. This them gentle reader is the value this Book for us to see ourselves in the light of reality, human progress has ever been the result of the grace and patience of God. Exodus permanent value is the revelation of God and His method used here and the responsibilities of man Let’s consider these values and from them deduce the living message of the Book we have called Exodus ...

To be continued....