Phone Version of tGod's Study: November 3, 2015, 7 p.m.
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Welcome, Review and Check-in
I want to welcome everyone who is joining us, either by online blog, by video, or by phone. I am always so happy to gather with others in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. I think we learned a bit from last week’s lesson. But before I go into that, let’s begin with prayer.
For our opening prayer, let’s begin with Psalm 136:1, 13-16
1
Give thanks to the Lord, who is so good.
God’s love endures forever…
13
to the Lord who divided the Red Sea asunder
God's love endures forever.
14
and brought Israel through the midst of it,
God's love endures forever.
15
but swept Pharaoh and God's army into the Red Sea;
God's love endures forever.
16
to the One who led the people through the wilderness;
God's love endures forever.
If you are with others, please continue this prayer in silence.
What is occupying your mind right now? Give to God any concerns you have, or any preoccupations that might keep you from bringing your whole self to this study. Then, when you are ready, go to the next paragraph.
- Offer thanks to God for watching over all things, including those things that concern you.
- Offer thanks to God for watching over you, too.
- Offer any other prayer that is on your heart.
Close with Psalm 136:23-26
23
God remembers us in our low estate
His love endures forever.
24
and frees us from our enemies.
His love endures forever.
25
God gives food to every creature.
His love endures forever.
26
Give thanks to the God of heaven.
His love endures forever.
Check-in
This week we will be looking at another key teachings about salvation from the Bible. Before we start, though, I want to give you an opportunity to check in.
First, if anyone is new, please let us know (be sure to tell us that by posting a comment to this page. In your comment,) and let us know what brings you to this study at this time.
For those who participated in the previous lessons, what would you like to share with the study group? Do you have any new questions or thoughts to share a week later?
This week I am traveling in an area that does not allow me an easy connection to the internet. This means that I am publishing this earlier in the week and do not have as much time to put into a clean, online version. This is therefore shorter than usual.
Still, the message is important, and there is enough here to invite a great deal of conversation on the social nature of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ.
Remembering our Heritage in Alaska
We live in a generation that needs to remain aware of the hard work our Alaskan forbears have done to create the government, social agencies, churches and economic structures to make our lives better. Here are a few:
When there were tensions within the Alaskan population, the Navy provided government in some areas.
When civil government was established, Christian (and often Presbyterians) provided leadership to fill the vacuum.
When civil government was established, Christian (and often Presbyterians) provided leadership to fill the vacuum.
The Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood had distinct Christian roots.
Many people worked for many years to gain statehood for Alaska, with fishing rights serving as one of the driving forces.
The Alaska Federation of Natives formed when the discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay made it clear that the government was going to deal court the oil issue, including dealing with Native Land Claims issues. The AFN has been a powerful, and important agency for Alaskan Natives ever since.
The North Slope Borough and the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation both formed to serve the political and economic needs of the arctic people. Seed money to form these organizations was provided by the Presbyterian Self-Development of People Fund in order to create greater opportunities for economic and political justice in the arctic.
Christian churches began most of the schools and hospitals that were founded in Alaska before 1970. Although many mistakes were made, the primary motivation was to provide for the wellbeing of the people of Alaska.
What longings do people have in their best selves for governmental, economic and religious systems that serve all the people?
Salvation As Deliverance From Bondage
Exodus as the Founding Story of Judaism:
Read Exodus 2:23-25, 3:4,7-8, 14:30, 15:2,
Read Exodus 2:23-25, 3:4,7-8, 14:30, 15:2,
2:23 After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. 24 God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 25 God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.
3 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
3:7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Crossing the Red Sea: 14:30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians;
Crossing the Red Sea: 14:30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians;
15:1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:
“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.
2 The Lord is my strength and my might,
and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him…
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.
2 The Lord is my strength and my might,
and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him…
Exodus Became Foundational in Israel’s Memory—Prophets and Psalms
Hosea 13:4,
I have been the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior.
Ps. 106:21
They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt…
They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt…
Exodus Clearly Shows God As Savior From Several Types of Bondage
- Economic Bondage
The slaves of Egypt were exploited and impoverished, condemned to unending hard labor, and given only meager rations to eat.
- Political Bondage
The slave had no power, no voice, and no say in how the political system was put together.
- Religious Bondage
Pharaoh would not give them permission to worship their God, because God’s passion was for a different kind of world—a world where oppressing people does not happen, a world where everyone thrives and not just an elite ethnic group or economic class, a world where people are free to worship the real God, rather than human-made images of God that let the rich and powerful lord it over the . [God tells Moses that God’s name is Yahweh, which means “I am who I am.” Most of us take this to mean that this is the real God, and that God is beyond our ability to define.
- Psychological and Emotional Bondage:
It took the Israelites 40 years to stop acting so weak and afraid that they could not go forward as God’s chosen people. Sometimes we need God to transform what is wounded in us.
This experience strongly shaped the life of Israel after that. In fact the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) describe this period in Israel’s life is called The Law (or The Torah, which translates as “Law”). It is called The Law because it was out of this experience God gave the people a whole host of laws designed to shape them into a new and faithful people. These laws were recorded in these first five books and roughly covered three categories of life: economic, political and religious requirements. Notice that these are the same areas where Israel faced oppression from the Egyptians.
The Law is too long and involved to study in one lesson. However, let me list a few strong examples to show why these three categories were important in shaping Israel’s identity.
Economic Laws
- No one was to charge interest on loans. Helping another was to be done freely.
- Every seventh year (a Sabbath of years)
all debts were to be forgiven, and
those who had fallen into indentured slavery because of debt were to be set free.
- Every 50th year (a Sabbath of Sabbath years, plus one to show perfection)
was the Year of Jubilee, when any land that had been sold to pay debt, or to relieve poverty, was returned to the original family. One could not lose the family’s inheritance of the land for future generations—it was a God-given relationship.
These laws were designed to prevent the establishment of a permanently impoverished underclass, or a permanently wealthy and powerful upper class. The Israelites had been saved from slavery in Egypt, and Egypt was not to be recreated in Israel.
Political Laws
In the first centuries of the nation of Israel they had no king. In Egypt they experienced the tyranny that went with kingship. God’s people were not to be about radical individualism or anarchy, though. They were to be a connected, united people ruled by God, but with no other Lord than God.
When the people later decided they had to have a king, they discovered the rule of the kings often went badly. Over the years many of the prophets (Amos, Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, Obadiah) accused the kings of becoming new Pharaohs.
Religious Laws
As we have seen earlier, the information recorded in The Torah came out of this period. Most famously, the Ten Commandments was a part of this writing.
There are many ways that these areas of concern are issues in every time and place. Consider an area that you are concerned about: perhaps your community, or Alaska, or the United States, or the world:
- Exodus tells us that ethnic and economic class distinctions are always potential areas for great injustice in society.
How is that an issue in your area of concern?
- Moses allowed himself to be available to God to participate in God’s salvation of Israel. Who are the heroes of justice and liberation you remember?
How much do you open yourself to be available to God, even for an unexpected call to service?
- Moses noticed something out of place (a bush that burned without being consumed) and stopped to observe it. In the observation, God spoke to him.
As you observe the world, are you looking for God’s presence, and listening for God’s voice?
Do you see signs of injustice and oppression today? If so, how might people of faith respond?
I must end my writing now. Continue this line of thought regarding economic issues, and issues of religious freedom (Pharaoh did not allow the Israelites to freely practice their religion).
What other ways does this passage speak of Liberation from Bondage?
What kinds of bondage are people suffering today?
I invite you to continue your meditation, and then to close with a prayer to God for whatever insights, or whatever connections with God’s grace that this study may have opened for you.