{"id":2207,"date":"2017-11-03T13:45:11","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T02:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/?p=2207"},"modified":"2018-02-24T20:09:02","modified_gmt":"2018-02-24T09:09:02","slug":"the-god-of-the-exodus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/?p=2207","title":{"rendered":"The God of the exodus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2527\" src=\"http:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/BIG_0012898267-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Church bulletin:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">During the last school holidays I went to see the film Dunkirk. I found it enjoyable without being anything special. One thing didn\u2019t seem quite right to me. The actual evacuation in 1940 involved nearly four hundred thousand soldiers; to accomplish this, more than eight hundred boats crossed the English Channel. Watching the movie however I would have said that four thousand men were evacuated by eighty boats. The sheer scale of the operation wasn\u2019t really captured on film.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">This exodus reminded me of the biblical exodus for the same kind of reasons. When I think of the Hebrews departing Egypt and making their way through the wilderness, I have a mental picture of several thousand people. This has probably been fostered by another film \u2013 The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston as Moses. I haven\u2019t seen it for years but I loved it as a child and watched it several times. Once again, the sheer volume of people involved has not been conveyed on film. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Ex 12:37, <i>\u201cT<\/i><i>hen the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0Some commentators believe this is a poor translation and the total number was six hundred thousand, not just the men. Others however, believe that the men plus women and children would add up to well over two million. Although there is a vast difference, either way it is a lot of people \u2013 certainly more than what was presented in the movie. Liberal scholars have used these numbers to argue that the Bible is factually inaccurate. An exodus involving hundreds of thousands could not have taken place and furthermore there is no external evidence for it. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">If the starting point however is an eternal, transcendent, omnipotent God, then all things are possible \u2013 whether it is the creation of the universe, raising the dead or taking a great multitude on a long and difficult journey. We may not consciously subscribe to liberal theology but if our view of God is shaped by fallen, sinful human rationale rather than scripture, we end up with a God who is small, restricted, and domesticated. This in turn shapes our faith, our prayers, and our worship. For good reason believers are exhorted to remember God\u2019s mighty works such as the exodus \u2013 He did not deliver a few thousand, He delivered a nation. That same God provides for us, protects us, and will bring us into eternal glory. He is worthy of our trust and obedience. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Church bulletin: During the last school holidays I went to see the film Dunkirk. I found it enjoyable without being anything special. One thing didn\u2019t seem quite right to me. &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2207"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2615,"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207\/revisions\/2615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}