Intervarsity Press Daily Bible Study
INTERVARSITY PRESS DAILY BIBLE STUDY
Exodus 5:1-7:7: Rebuff and Resolution - Lesson 4
The Christian student group discovered a sure-fire winner for its outreach meeting. Here was a famous businessman who was sure to attract a crowd. Confidently, the Christians plugged away at inviting their friends, and their work was rewarded with a packed room. An hour or so later they fled the room in defeat. They had tried to obey God but their venture failed. In a word, their hero speaker bombed. Discouragement enveloped the group like a dense fog. No doubt Moses felt the same way, except the stakes were higher. In this study, he and Aaron are soundly rebuffed, though they doggedly pursue God's will with obedient courage.
Warming Up to God
What struggles have you faced today? Tell God about them, and let him show you through Scripture how he deals with evil.
Discovering the Word
1. What were the major outcomes of the first encounter between Moses and Aaron and Pharaoh (Ex 5)?
2. Describe Moses' feelings and the logic of his cry to God (5:22-23).
3. The statement "I am the LORD" is repeated four times in 6:1-8.
4. What does God emphasize about himself in response to Moses' complaint (6:1-5)?
5. What does the Lord's message to Israel emphasize about his plans for them (6:6-8)?
6. Moses is concerned that Pharaoh won't listen to him (6:30). Yet how will Pharaoh's stubbornness help to fulfill God's plans for Egypt (7:3-5)?
7. In spite of defeat and discouragement (5:2; 6:9, 12, 30), Moses "did just as the LORD commanded" (7:6). What do you think brought him to this decisive obedience?
Applying the Word
1. Give an example from your life of when discouragement blurred the clarity of God's power and promises.
2. What definitive spiritual decision have you made during your life as a Christian?
Responding in Prayer
Thank God for the people and circumstances he used to influence your walk with Christ.
2016-2017 Tulsa Bible Church Men’s Bible Study – tulsabible.org
For further consideration:
ID: Inductive Questions (Asking the text questions like who, what, where, when, why, & how?”)
CR: Cross References (Comparing Scripture to Scripture, understanding the vague by the clear.)
WS: Word Study (Understanding definition, theological meaning, and usages in other passages.)
1b. WS/CR (5:1-2) Pharoah said that he would not let the Israelites go because he did not “know” the Lord. Compare this with the statements in 6:6-7 and 7:15-17. What was one of God’s purposes in rescuing Israel from the Egyptians?
3b. CR (6:2-3) How do you reconcile the statement in 6:3 that, “God appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” with Jesus’ statement in John 1:18 that, “no one has seen the Father at any time”?
7b. ID (6:16-25) Genealogies and lists of households can be pretty dry, especially when they are full of names that don’t appear anywhere else in the Bible. However, this list contains at least ten names that do appear in other passages. How many of them do you recognize?
Creation Apologetics Research Ministry------
Has anyone seen God or not?
By Matt Slick, thePresident and Founder of the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry.
Exodus 24:9-11, Exodus 33:11, Exodus 6:2-3; and John 1:18
1. Has seen
1. (Gen. 17:1), “Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless;
2. (Gen. 18:1) Now the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day.”
3. (Exodus 6:2-3), "God spoke further to Moses and said to him, "I am the LORD; 3and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, LORD, I did not make Myself known to them.”
4. (Exodus 24:9-11), “Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, 10and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. 11Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and they saw God, and they ate and drank.”
5. (Num. 12:6-8), “He said, "Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. 7"Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household; 8With him I speak mouth to mouth, Even openly, and not in dark sayings, And he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant, against Moses ?"
6. (Acts 7:2), "And he [Stephen] said, 'Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran . . . '"
2. Has not seen
1. (Exodus 33:20), “But He [God] said, "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!"
2. (John 1:18), “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”
3. (John 5:37), “"And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form.”
4. (John 6:46), "Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.”
5. (1 Tim. 6:15-16), “He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.”
It is evident above that God was seen. But, considering the "can't-see-God" verses, some would understandably argue that there would be a contradiction. One explanation offered is that the people were seeing visions, or dreams, or the Angel of the LORD (Num. 22:22-26;Judges 13:1-21) and not really God Himself. But the problem is that the verses cited above do not say vision, dream, or Angel of the LORD. They say that people saw God (Exodus 24:9-11), that God was seen, and that He appeared as God Almighty (Exodus 6:2-3).
At first, this is difficult to understand. God Almighty was seen (Exodus 6:2-3) which means it was not the Angel of the Lord, for an angel is not God Almighty; and at least Moses saw God and not in a vision or dream, as the LORD Himself attests inNum. 12:6-8. If these verses mean what they say, then we naturally assume we have a contradiction. Actually, the contradiction exists in our understanding, not in the Bible, which is always the case with alleged biblical contradictions.
The solution is simple. All you need to do is accept what the Bible says. If the people of the OT were seeing God, the Almighty God, and Jesus said that no one has ever seen the Father (John 6:46), then they were seeing God Almighty but not the Father. It was someone else in the Godhead. I suggest that they were seeing the Word before He became incarnate. In other words, they were seeing Jesus.
If God is aTrinity, thenJohn 1:18is not a problem either because in John chapter one, John writes about the Word (Jesus) and God (the Father). In verse 14 it says the Word became flesh. In verse 18 it says no one has seen God. Since Jesus is the Word, God then, refers to the Father. This is typically how John writes of God: as a reference to the Father. We see this verified in Jesus' own words inJohn 6:46where He said that no one has ever seen the Father. Therefore, Almighty God was seen but not the Father. It was Jesus before His incarnation. There is more than one person in the Godhead, and the doctrine of the Trinity must be true.