BEMA Episode Link: 17: A God Who Hears the Cry
Episode Length: 43:34
Published Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2017 01:00:00 -0800
Session 1
About this episode:

Marty Solomon and Brent Billings wrap up the introduction to God’s story and set up the narrative of the remainder of Scripture in an effort to understand what God is rescuing His people from.

A God Who Hears the Cry Presentation (PDF)

Discussion Video for BEMA 17

That the World May Know — Faith Lessons, Volumes 1–12 (Amazon)

God Heard Their Cry — Ray Vander Laan (Amazon)

TTWMK Faith Lessons on DVD and Digital (Focus on the Family)

BEMA listeners can use code BEMA12 for 20% off of one purchase. Details.

Transcript for BEMA 17

Notes

*Note: The following notes are handwritten by me, Adam, and I reserve the right to be wrong.

• We have gone over the preface, the introduction and now we are entering into the narative.
• We are taking a break from the text this episode to take a step back and look at Egypt to understand what empire is and how it impacts culture and its people.
• Hagah project: What is going on in Exodus 4:24-31?
  • Why does God show up to kill Moses?
  • How does Zipporah know exactly what to do?
  • Why is Moses’s son not carrying the sign of the covenant?
  • What has been Moses’s experience in this story?
  • What kinds of things stand out about this story?
• Moses’s experience as a Hebrew growing up in Pharoah’s house.
  • Survivor’s guilt–he was supposed to have been killed with the other babies.
  • He knows that he’s a Hebrew because he bears the sign of the covenant.
  • Did he bear a grudge against the Egyptians because of the way they treated his people.
• Exodus 4:10
  • Moses argues with G-d about his speech impediment.
  • Marty argues that it’s unlikely that any form of speech impediment would have been trained out of him having been raised in the most powerful house in the world.
  • G-d’s shows anger toward Moses when it becomes apparent that his own son was not circumcized.
  • This seems to be another sign that Moses doesn’t see himself as a member of G-d’s people.
• Exodus 6
  • G-d tells Moses to go speak to Pharoah and Moses again pushes back.
    • 6:12 “…since I speak with faltering lips?” which is translated from the Hebrew as “I am uncircumsized of lips.”
    • This seems to suggest Moses is still struggling with this issue of circumcision from earlier in his story with his son.
    • This same language is used in 6:30.
    • What we see is a ~chiasm.
      • A: 6:12 “faltering lips”
        • B: Geneology proving that Moses is the Hebrew he struggles to believe that he is.
      • ‘A: 6:30 “faltering lips”
    • G-d never argues with Moses about his insecurities. G-d meets Moses where he is at in his insecurities.
      • God’s not interested in your qualifications. God is interested in your availability. God is interested in your trust.
• Brent notices
  • throughout the story that G-d will instruct Moses and Moses will have no response in the text.
  • it’s weird that G-d would want to kill Moses.
  • it’s weird that Zapporah touched his feet with his son’s foreskin.
• Vocabulary
  • chathan: bridegroom or son-in-law
    • Genesis 19:12; 19:14 Exodus 4:25; 4:26
  • rasha: wicked
    • Genesis 18:23; 18:25 Exodus 2:13; 9:27
  • tsa’aqah: cry out (oppression)
    • Genesis 18:21; 19:13 Exodus 3:7; 3:9
  • shaphat: to judge (restorative)
    • Genesis 18:26; 19:9 Exodus 2:14; 5:21

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