"Enough!" at Harderwyk - Exodus 1-4 - March 6, 2022

Resources For "Enough" From Each Harderwyk Preacher

I. New For This Week

Bible Project Background for Our New Series in Exodus

I have ordered these from broad to focused. See the big sweeping movement of the OT.  Check out a beautiful theme video on the Law and how this theme works its way throughout the scriptures and in Jesus' life and ministry.  Then see more detail in the Torah with 7 episodes on the first 5 books – link to the home of that series. Finally, the Exodus overview in two parts that works through the bible poster of Exodus. Here are the links. Happy exploring!

• TaNaK / OT Summary
• Watch: TaNaK / Old Testament / Hebrew Bible Overview Video | BibleProject™
• Torah Summary Video – the Law through OT to Jesus
• Watch: The Law Biblical Theme Video | BibleProject™
• The Torah Series (7 Episodes) from Book Collections
• Watch: Torah Book Collection Video Series | BibleProject™
• Exodus Summary Videos
• Watch: Exodus 1-18 Bible Book Overview Video | BibleProject™
• Watch: Exodus 19-40 Bible Book Overview Video | BibleProject™

Praying As One Who Works.  Working As One Who Prays - CLICK HERE for the closing story used in Celebration this week, taken from the book Prayer In The Night by Tish Harrison Warren.  CLICK HERE for the Amazon.com link to this outstanding book.

Transcendence and the Gospel of God's Grace - From Tim & Kathy Keller in God's Wisdom for Navigating Life - Every person’s wisdom—way of interpreting the meaning of things—begins with one’s view of God. What is a cat? It depends. Are we in a godless universe, so every living thing is just the product of a violent process of survival of the fittest? Or is God the impersonal world-spirit, so that everything in the physical world is an illusion? Or are we created by God, put into this world to care for it, including the animals (Genesis 1:26)? Each view of reality would necessarily look at a cat—and perhaps treat a cat—differently.  Reading for February 24 on p. 55

Celebration Sermon Outline - CLICK HERE for this Sunday's Sermon Outline.

II. From The Commentaries On This Passage

From John Goldingay in Exodus and Leviticus For Everyone:

“Moses is not being commissioned on the basis of his experience in the palace, his initiative, or his leadership potential. He will not need any of these to fulfill the strictly subordinate role God has in mind. All he will have to do is relay messages to Pharaoh and perform tricks. What counts is God’s “I will be with you.” This is not merely a promise that he will feel God is with him but a promise that God will be with him actively whether he feels it or not. If he does not feel it, he will have a sign that God really is with him, though it is a sign that presupposes God’s wicked sense of humor. He will see the sign that God is with him only when the exodus is all over. He will have to go through the crisis and the challenge on the basis of trust in God’s promise to him, but when he gets back to Mount Horeb, along with the people, he will be able to look back and reflect, “God said ‘I am going to do this,’ and it happened; this shows God did it….

…So Exodus precedes the declaring of the name with the declaration “I will be,” and it precedes that with the enigmatic “I will be what I will be.” Excuse me? But God has already used that expression in promising Moses, “I will be with you.” What kind of God is promising to get them out of Egypt? Yahweh is a God who will be there, who will be with them, who will be whatever it is necessary to be in different contexts to achieve that purpose announced to the ancestors.”

From Tim Chester in Exodus For You:

“Today, people like to define God for themselves. Think about people who say, “I’m not religious, but I am spiritual” or, “I think God is like …” What they’re saying is, “I don’t want anyone to tell me what to think about God. I’ll decide for myself what God is like. I’ll imagine him or her or it in whatever way I choose.”

Christians are not immune to this. Of some aspect of God’s character or Christian truth we might say, “I don’t like the sound of that … I just don’t think God is like that.” It might be his judgment, or his sovereignty, or his sexual standards. We make a god in our image and he becomes a fluffy god—a god who suits our desires but cannot help us when we are in need. We think of God in the way we want to think of him.

But to do this is to detach yourself from reality. You might as well say, “I like to think of elephants as two-legged animals”. What you want to think about elephants is irrelevant! It won’t change the fact that they have four legs. And what you or I or anyone wants to think about God doesn’t change who God actually is. God is not a concept that we can shape as we choose. God is. God is a reality—the ultimate reality. So in this passage God says, “I am who I am” (v 14). God is self-defining. It is God who determines and announces who he will be and what he will be like—not our imagination. When confronted with the real God, we discover that God is more terrifying and more loving than we could ever have imagined and than any god we could dream up.”

III. Ongoing Resources

1) Spiritual Formation Resources Page - CLICK HERE - This is still a work in progress, but be a part as we look to build.

2) Scotty Smith’s Heavenward Daily Prayers - CLICK HERE - to see the daily prayer blog of Scotty Smith.  You will see an option to have them delivered to your email inbox each day as well.  

3) Simple Lectio Divina Overview - CLICK HERE - for a simple introduction of the spiritual practice of a more personal way of experience the Word through contemplation and reflection.