![\"Digging](\"https:\/\/faith-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/20170523133755\/Digging-Deeper-in-Exodus.jpg\" "\\"Digging-Deeper-in-Exodus\\"")
Have you ever heard the Ten Commandments read at a funeral?\u00a0 How about Leviticus?\u00a0 No? Ever thought about why not?\u00a0 Does Leviticus warm your heart?\u00a0 What do you normally hear at funerals?\u00a0 Psalm 23?<\/p>\nHave you ever heard the Ten Commandments read at a funeral?\u00a0 How about Leviticus?\u00a0 No? Ever thought about why not?\u00a0 Does Leviticus warm your heart?\u00a0 What do you normally hear at funerals?\u00a0 Psalm 23?<\/p>\n
Psalm 23 is a Hebrew poem about The Good Shepherd who, in grace, provides rest, food, water, and protection, for His sheep.\u00a0 The truth of Psalm 23 about The Good Shepherd, which David, a shepherd, wrote, had long been established before<\/em> David ever lived.<\/p>\n What was the original occupation of God’s people starting with Abraham?\u00a0 Abraham was a nomadic shepherd.\u00a0 Abraham was the first to be guided along by God, then Isaac, and Jacob.\u00a0 Jacob in His old age actually says in Gen 48:15, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who has been my shepherd<\/em><\/strong> all my life to this day.”\u00a0 God dealt with His people in ways they could understand.\u00a0 He related to His people in grace first as a Shepherd.\u00a0 That is true in Exodus as well before<\/em> the Law was given.\u00a0 Let\u2019s dig a little deeper to see.<\/p>\n Imagine what it would have been like to have just been rescued in the Exodus.\u00a0 You had seen this God who devastated the Egyptian nation with plagues, killed the first born of the Egyptians, and wiped out the Egyptian armies by hurling the Red Sea at them.\u00a0 And now, He wants you\u2014but for what purpose?\u00a0 Now you are “captive” by this incomparable God.\u00a0 You go from one harsh task master Pharaoh, to another with infinitely more fierce power.\u00a0 You question.\u00a0 Is He harsh?\u00a0 What will He do to me?\u00a0 What does He want with me?\u00a0 Will he hurl a mountain at me like He hurled the sea at them?<\/p>\n What did the former slaves need to see about their new Master?\u00a0 If you were one of them, wouldn\u2019t you need to see a demonstration of the new Master\u2019s inherent goodness? <\/em><\/strong>For trust to take place, wouldn\u2019t you need to know that all that power He wields is for the good of His people?\u00a0 That is exactly what happens in Exodus 16-18.\u00a0 Chapters 16-18 reflect God’s good shepherding of His people\u2014His grace in dealing with His people.<\/p>\n The Israelites who were slaves must now be transformed into servants of the one true infinitely powerful but good<\/em><\/strong> God.\u00a0 They must learn to trust Him.\u00a0 \u00a0A theme that occurs in this narrative is one of “testing.”\u00a0 Yahweh will test the people (Exodus 16:4) and the people test Yahweh (Exodus 17:2,7).\u00a0 Yahweh is the one who passes the test as the good<\/em><\/strong> providing shepherd.\u00a0 The Israelites will need to jettison their slave mentality and learn how to be sons and daughters who trust their good<\/em><\/strong> Father.\u00a0 .<\/p>\n If you read Exodus 16-18 carefully you will see that Yahweh, the good shepherd, will provide rest, food, water, protection, and even a “table” (Exodus 18:12) in the presence of God’s people’s enemies in these chapters.\u00a0 So we have Psalm 23 in Exodus!\u00a0 Or is it Exodus in Psalm 23?\u00a0 Thus, there is grace first in Exodus.<\/p>\n