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BIBLE STUDY
                                   
                                   
 

“I will gain glory through Pharaoh”

In a moment, we’ll read the amazing story of how God delivered his people from slavery
in Egypt. Let’s pause for a moment to ask a radical question: why? For what higher
purpose did God want to set his people free? See Exodus 5:1 and Exodus 9:1. See also
the story of Jesus, Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42. What do these passages suggest
about the right relationship between work and worship in our own lives?

Read Exodus 12:31-42.

1. Pharaoh’s final audience with Aaron and Moses (12:31-32) goes differently than
the first (Exodus 5:1-4). What four things does Pharaoh command Moses, Aaron
and the Israelites to do? What has changed about his attitude toward God?
Toward Moses?

2. Exodus records that when the Israelites left Egypt, “many other people went up
with them” (12:38). Who do you think might have accompanied the Israelites,
and why?

Read Exodus 13:17-14:31.

3. The Israelites – “the Lord’s divisions” (12:41) – went up out of Egypt armed for
battle (13:18). How might they have been armed, and why? If the events in
Exodus foreshadow our own spiritual journey from bondage to deliverance in
Christ, what lessons does this passage hold for us?

4. Try to imagine what it looked like to have pillars of fire and cloud guarding the
Israelite camp (13:21). What purposes did these phenomena serve? What
identity is ascribed to the pillar of fire (14:19)? Cf. Numbers 6:24-26. Whose
presence is associated with clouds, and why? See Mark 9:2-8, 14:60-62.

4/8/10: Lesson 7
5. Does it surprise you that God gains glory for himself by deceiving his enemies
(14:1-4)? Can you think of other examples from Scripture of God acting in this
way?

6. God says he will gain glory for himself through Pharaoh and all his army (14:4).
Does God still work this way today? See I John 3:7, 8 and John 9:1-5.

7. How does Moses’ assurance to the Israelites (14:14) differ from what God actually
tells Moses to do (14:15-16)? Why did God’s command actually require so much
more faith?

Trapped between Pharaoh’s chariots, and the sea, the Israelites literally had no
way out. Victory was physically impossible. God, however, demonstrated for all
time that with him, all things are possible. Where we see only cause for despair,
he can make a way.

8. God says many times that his defeat of Pharaoh would bring him glory. What
reaction did it provoke among the Israelites (14:31)?

4/8/10: Lesson 7