Download Small Group Discussion Guide – Aug. 28, 2016

Small Group Discussion Guide – Aug. 28, 2016
Week 3— The Exodus
From Pastor Hamilton’s sermon:
We come to an epic battle between Pharaoh and Moses, between the gods of Egypt
and the God of Israel. This is the defining story of the Jewish people, the most
important story of the Old Testament….
I believe the story happened. I don’t think it is written in Exodus like a New York
Times’ reporter’s account. It was not written as history, but as proclamation, as a
celebration of the Jewish people’s epic story. Sometimes when LaVon and I watch
movies I catch myself saying, “That could never happen,” or “that part didn’t make any
sense.” And she’ll say, “Shhh! You are ruining the story—just enjoy it!” That’s how I read
the Exodus story. It is based on actual events, but was told to make a point. Don’t get
hung up on each detail, and don’t miss the big idea….
The story itself never mentions the Pharaoh’s name….most mainline and Jewish
scholars favor a date in the 1200’s for the Exodus. If so, the Pharaoh with whom Moses
battled to liberate the Israelite slaves was Pharaoh Rameses II. The image of Rameses
II as the pharaoh of the Exodus adds to the drama because we know a lot about him.
Let me tell you a bit about Rameses II, this story’s villain. He ruled Egypt for 65 years.
He was known as Rameses the Great, ruled during a golden age of Egypt, and was
responsible for massive building projects across Egypt. He built HUGE buildings, on a
scale Egypt had seldom seen. Thousands of statues of the man across Egypt marked
his massive building projects. Click here to see video we shot of two statues of him; the
second was a colossus, 45 feet tall when it stood. What does the fact that he had so
many images of himself, in temples, in cities, across the country, tell you about him?
With this in mind, listen to the exchange between Moses and the Pharaoh: “Moses
and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, ‘This is what the LORD, Israel’s God, says: ‘Let
my people go so that they can hold a festival for me in the desert.’’ But Pharaoh said,
‘Who is this LORD whom I’m supposed to obey by letting Israel go? I don’t know this
LORD, and I certainly won’t let Israel go.’”
What’s more, Pharaoh tells Moses and Aaron, from this time forward he will require
the Israelites to collect their own straw to make their mud bricks, while being required to
meet the same quota. (Click here to see video of bricks that remain from Rameses’
buildings, with the straw visible in the bricks.)
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Have you ever had an experience like Israel’s—you decided to do what God
called you to and at first things got worse? If so, do you think that means you
misunderstood God’s call, or just that God’s timing may be different from yours?
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Do you know anyone like Rameses—someone totally wrapped up in himself or
herself? Have you ever been tempted to make yourself the center of your own
world? What do the pictures of Rameses’ images of himself, now wrecked, fallen
antiques, teach all of us about the perils of his approach to life?
From Pastor Hamilton’s sermon:
Some have, rightly I think, seen in the plagues a bit of satire. The battle taking place is
not simply between an 80-year-old shepherd and the powerful pharaoh. The battle is
also between the gods of Egypt and the God of Israel. This is seen in the plagues.
The first plague, turning the Nile and the other waters to blood, was a way of showing
God’s control over the Nile. In Egyptian mythology the god of the Nile was called Hapi,
and he was very important to sustaining life in Egypt. But the God of Israel overpowered
him in this plague. In the second plague the frogs climb out of the river and become a
nuisance to the people. Heket was a goddess in Egypt portrayed as a frog. Likewise the
death of the cattle may have indicated God’s power over the Egyptian goddess Hathor
who was often portrayed as a cow. Where we see this most dramatically is in the 9th
plague when the sun was blotted out. I remind you that Rameses’ name and Moses’
name were related. Moses means “son of” and typically had a prefix. Moses name did
not, which may have pointed to the fact that he was found in the Nile and adopted—
“son of no one.” But Rameses’ name was Moses with the prefix Ra. This was a battle
between Moses and Ra-Moses. Ra was the Sun god. In the 9th plague, Moses took
away the light of the sun for three days with a darkness you could feel.
Yahweh, God, was showing in dramatic fashion that the Egyptian gods Pharaoh
worshiped had no power. I felt this way in 2008, when the stock market and the housing
market crashed and we were left with the Great Recession. It felt like we had been
stripped of the gods we worshiped, and were left to figure out what was really most
important to us. I appreciate Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ words in his essays on Exodus:
“When money rules, we remember the price of things and forget the value of things.”
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What do you believe it means for something to become a “god” in your life? How
do time, focus, and money play into what things are truly our “gods”? What gods
have you had to set aside in order to serve the God of the Exodus as your one
true Creator and Lord?
From Pastor Hamilton’s sermon:
This takes us to the climax of our story, in which God’s judgment will be poured on
Egypt. God will deliver Israel from death, from oppression and slavery, and he will make
them his people, delivering them to the Promised Land.
Moses told the Israelites to prepare for this plague by slaughtering a lamb, roasting
and eating it as a family. But they were to take the blood of the lamb and using hyssop,
but when the angel saw the blood of the lamb on the doorpost, he would pass over
these homes and spare the people in them. Thirty-three hundred years later our Jewish
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friends remember this event, and God deliverance, in the festival of the Passover….
The Israelites left Egypt, went southeast, but then appear to have turned north, and
camped before one of the lakes. The traditional translation that they passed through the
Red Sea is inaccurate. The Hebrew says “Reed Sea,” and likely means a lake. This
brought the final victory over Pharaoh. Pharaoh changes his mind; he decides it was a
mistake to let the Hebrew slaves go. His hubris, his willingness to continue to fight
against this Force that has sent plague after plague is amazing. Now Pharaoh leads
600 of his charioteers to fight and bring the Israelites back.
The Israelites had their backs against the Sea of Reeds, with no defense against
Pharaoh’s chariots. They cried out in fear, but Moses said: “Don’t be afraid. Stand your
ground, and watch the LORD rescue you today…You just keep still.” The Egyptians
knew they had the Israelites trapped. That night God told Moses to lift his staff over the
water. Exodus notes, “The LORD pushed the sea back by a strong east wind all night,
turning the sea into dry land.” The next day Moses led the Israelites across, with water
on the left and right, but a path through the lake. The Egyptians chased after them, and
as the Israelites arrived on the other side of the lake, the waters came crashing down
upon the Egyptians, and the most powerful fighting force on earth was destroyed….
Jesus and the earliest Christians saw in this story a picture of what he was doing for
the whole human race. It’s not just that people 3,300 years ago were slaves in Egypt.
We’re all slaves in one way or another. We’re slaves to anger, resentment or hate, or
like Pharaoh, to selfishness and narcissism. We’re slaves to fear, or to hopelessness or
despair. We’re slaves to guilt, shame, addiction and sin. Ultimately we’re slaves to
death. As God intervened in history to save the Israelites from bondage, so, we believe,
God intervened in history once more to save and redeem the human race, to save us
from our lostness, brokenness, fears, to save us from guilt, sin and death.
Jesus sat at a Passover Seder the night before he was crucified, remembering the
story of the Exodus with his disciples. He took the bread and wine and transformed the
story, when he said, “This bread is my body, given for you. This cup is my blood of the
New Covenant for you.” In John 8 Jesus said to the religious leaders, “Very truly, I tell
you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin…so if the Son makes you free, you will
be free indeed.” We are not slaves, but free sons and daughters by faith in him.
This is our defining story as Christians. What God did through Moses to free the
Israelites, God did through Jesus, through his life, death and resurrection, to set us free
from whatever enslaves us. And “when the Son has set you free, you are free indeed!”
What is binding you today? Perhaps you are like Pharaoh and it is pride. Perhaps you
find yourself enslaved to addiction, or fear, or hate or guilt. Maybe it is mental illness or
resentment. Christ bore this on the cross. He came that you might be free.
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In what circumstances do Moses’ words make spiritual sense: “Watch the LORD
rescue you today…You just keep still”? God opened the way, but the Israelites
had to walk through the water with their own legs and feet? How can your effort
and God’s power work together to accomplish God’s purposes?
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What is binding you today? How can your group (or, in some cases, one or two
particularly trusted friends) help to support you as you open your life to allow
God to set you free? Does spiritual freedom happen all at once, or is it a life-long
process of discovery and growth?