Food for Thought #4 Redemption - Part 2

There are many people today who do not believe in the intercession of God in the affairs of human beings. On the other hand there are people who presume that God intercedes in almost every aspect of their daily lives; they say and believe that God directs them to go to this place to do these things and one has to wonder about the authenticity of these claims.  In fact God does intercede, as He does numerous times in Genesis.

But the knowledge of such intercessions is made known only to those who have a deep faith and trust in God such as Abraham.  God does not show Himself directly (face to Face) but through strangers who are representatives of God or his angels, or as voices or sounds from nearby; or in dreams or visions.  Scripture affirms that no person has ever seen God face to face; this is left as an after-death experience.

God does not interfere with our free will, but he may direct or guide us through His gift of Grace to motivate us to follow His plan for us; but we are free to follow His direction or not.  Whether we respond favorably to His Grace or not is still in His plan, that is, we cannot defeat His plan.  God is with His human beings at all times, always responding to our prayers in His way that benefits us the most, keeping us in our very existence, continually guiding us through His grace and allowing us to exercise our free will; although God may prevent a person from willing to do something extraordinarily evil through some event that makes it impossible for the person to act - for example, allowing the death of the person.

We continue to see the story of His loving interaction with His people in Scripture.  The book of Exodus follows Genesis and recounts all the events of God rescuing the Jews from slavery in Egypt.   Moses is the central character and is directed by God to save his people after being rescued from the tyranny of Pharaoh who orders all the newborn boy babies of the Jews to be killed in order to reduce the great number of Jews whom pharaoh fears.

His mother puts the baby Moses in a basket to float down the river until the baby is picked up by a Princess of Pharaoh who adopts him as her son. When Moses grows to a young man with high status in Pharaoh's court he makes a visit to his fellow Jews who are being used as slaves building the edifices of the Pharaoh. He kills an Egyptian soldier who killed one of the Jewish laborers and in fear for his life flees Egypt to Midian.  Moses stays a long time away from Egypt until God calls him from a burning bush to go to Pharaoh and demand the release of the Jews.

When Moses goes to Pharaoh, Pharaoh refuses to let the Jews leave Egypt. Therefore God, working through Moses, allows a number of pestilences to influence Pharaoh. One of the pestilences involved God's Angels being sent to kill the firstborn of the Egyptians including pharaoh's son while sparing the Jews who painted their dwellings with the blood of a lamb as a sign to the avenging angels to pass over the homes of the Jews.  Ever since the angels' passing over the houses of the Jews, which had been marked with the blood of a lamb, this event has been commemorated as the feast of the Passover of the Jews.

Pharaoh had finally had enough and allowed Moses to take the Jews out of Egypt.  Moses, through a miraculous gift from God, parts the waters of the Red Sea to allow the Jews to cross. Pharaoh in the meantime had regretted letting the Jews leave so he, with his army, chased the Jews but were killed when trying to cross the Red Sea as the waters returned to their original state.

On Mount Sanai God gave Moses a stone tablet on which were written ten Commandments. When Moses returned to the Israelite camp he saw them making and worshiping gold idols. In disgust Moses broke the tablet.  He told the Israelites about the tablets and the commandments written by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and now they were worshiping false gods of Egypt.  He returned to Sanai and was given another tablet.  Moses had to struggle with his people to get them to understand their history as God's people. 

Over years of wandering of the Jews in the desert, Moses establishes the framework of the laws that the Jews are to live by.  After the original generation of the Jews who had escaped from Egypt were deceased, and new generations who never experienced the false religions of the Egyptians, they were now ready to make their way to a "land of milk and honey" promised them by their Lord God.

After the death of Moses, a new leader Joshua, leads the Israelites into the promised land and conquerors the people, with the Lord's help, who occupied the promised land. Through time God gave them special leaders called judges but the people wanted a king so God gave them Saul as their first king. Saul was a disappointment as a king and God finds a mere shepherd boy named David who becomes a great king of the Israelites. David has left us with many of his psalms in which he shows his great love of God who revealed to David much about a descendent of his who was to be the Savior of his people Israel.

David was followed by many different Kings, some good and some bad, and we are introduced to the age of the prophets such as Isaiah and Jeremiah who warn the people when they do not live up to what God expects of them, and also prophesy more and more who this descendent of David, who will save his people, will be. The Jews went through many hardships when, after having been warned by the prophets of impending disaster for their wickedness, they were punished by God by being taken into captivity, such as the Babylonian captivity; after turning back to the Lord, the Jews were brought back to Palestine after their captivity.

Through the prophets, God revealed much about the Messiah, the one who is to come who will save God's people. But more and more the Jews are looking for a king who will vanquish their enemies rather than expect the Messiah to be, not a worldly king, but a King of a heavenly kingdom.

Now we enter the time of the Roman occupation of Palestine and we are to learn how the Jewish people reacted to the coming of Jesus Christ. This will be dealt with in Food for Thought #5 - The Redeemer.