Our culture today has many ideas that describe the nature of God. We may be challenged in our personal assumptions of the character of God through studying the Bible. God has revealed His personhood to us throughout the Bible. The book of Exodus gives a picture that the God of the Bible is both infinite and personal.\r\n\r\nA coffee shop interview about God's character from an anonymous interviewee was included.

Exodus gives two examples of God's compassion. First, in our suffering. God is moved by human suffering because He hears people and God is an emotional being. Secondly, God is not only moved by our suffering but His compassion produces action. An example of how God takes action is seen in His forgiveness and redemption for the people of Israel. This message of redemption is the Bible's central message.

God reveals His fatherly love to the nation of Israel. This fatherly love is seen through God's son, Jesus Christ. Jesus was the future hope for Israel. Today, we can have redemption through Jesus and be adopted by God as His children.

God loves to give. There are many lies we believe about the way God gives, as the people of Moses and the people of Israel struggled with. However, we can expect to give in unexpected ways because He is good. Ultimately, God gives us the gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus. \r\n\r\nAt the end of the teaching, two women spoke about their experience of what God had done in their lives.\r\n

God causes 10 plagues against the Egyptians that directly correlate with the Egyptian gods. Many view the plagues as disturbing due to the judgement on the Egyptians. However, God rescues the oppressed in order to show His character through this situation. Additionally, God persuades the oppressor to show that He alone is God. In the hardship that people face, it might require patient enduring until God finishes His persuading of the oppressor. God will ultimately stop the oppression because He is just.

Through the Passover, and those after, the Lord foreshadows the sacrifice that Jesus would make on the cross on behalf of humanity. The blood of the lamb during Passover represents the blood that Jesus would pour out on the cross. Just like Pharaoh, the Egyptians, and the Israelites', we also need to decide whether or not to accept God's mercy.

When the Lord parted the Red Sea for the Israelites to escape from the Egyptians, He was demonstrating His mighty power in the midst of the Israelites' all-out weakness. As a result of their dependence on Him, their faith was strengthened. We can also have the supernatural expectation that God can and desires to perform the miracle of heart and life transformation in us. However, it's not until we are totally weak?until we come to the end of ourselves?that we are able to fully trust in God's ability to work in us.

When the Israelites wandered in the desert, God led them through various trials in order to teach them dependence on Him. The manna he showered down on them represents God's deeper provision for our soul; the water from the rock is symbolic of God as our rock. The Lord wants to fill our lives the way He filled the Israelites with manna and water. In order to do so, He will lead us to unfamiliar places so that we are forced to either quit or trust that He will supply what's necessary to continue. Wherever God leads, He will also provide.

As humans it's easy to feel entitled, and to view God as our butler, showing up only when we ?need? Him. When Moses wrote a song to God, he was recalling and praising God's continual provision for the Israelites. God was ultimately leading them on a journey to the Promised Land (giving them a really good thing), but they still found ways to complain. In the same way, God continually meets our needs and exceeds our expectations, yet we still grumble! We need to recognize God as the ruler of our life, not ourselves.

Through God's example to His people in leading them with the pillar of fire and pillar of cloud, we also learn about God's leading in our lives. We knock down some common misconceptions about God's leading: 1) it will be very bizarre and attention-drawing; 2) it will be something that we hate, that also deprives us of doing the things that we love; and 3) God's Will ensures us success every time. Over time, as we grow and continue entrusting ourselves to God, we will realize that His Will is oftentimes right in line with our gifting, and that He is always for our good.

As the Israelites traveled through the wilderness, they were totally dependent on God's leading. God also desires to lead us. When we choose to let Him lead our life, we will inevitably be more satisfied than if we were to shut Him out. We can detect God's leadership for us through Scripture, listening in prayer, and through considering counsel from godly Christians.

A few months after God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, He made a covenant with them: if they obey His voice and keep His covenant with them, then they will be His possession among all the peoples of the earth, they will be His priests and a holy nation. Through Israel, God fulfilled His promise to make a great nation from Abraham's line. Just like God continued to bless Israel, He loves to bless us and empowers us to be a blessing to other people.