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Hope Channel

InVerse 3rd Quarter 2025: The Book of Exodus

Justin Kim

Joe Reeves

Jonathan Walter

01 Growth: A Blessing and a Curse

Coming to you from Silver Spring, Maryland, welcome to Inverse, a Bible-based conversation on life principles, contemporary issues, and thought-provoking perspectives.

Now here's your host, Justin Kim, with Inverse.

Hey everyone, my name's Justin and you're on another episode of Inverse.

It's just not another episode because we are now endeavoring into a new book of the Bible called Exodus.

And I'm so excited to study this new book with Jonathan and Joe.

And we have a new team member with us at the table, Jemima.

Jemima, tell us a little about yourself, your social security number, how many credit cards you have, your credit score.

We're very happy that you're here, but share with us and share with those who may be listening on whether it's on social media, on video, on podcast, on Morse code.

You were going to say your maiden name, weren't you?

So we hear a lot of object lessons from marriage out there.

Yes, originally from Uganda, lived in Canada and moved to the States.

So you identify more on your Canadian side?

Jonathan, you have Canadian connections a little bit?

All right, so speaking of Canada, we're gonna go to Exodus, And we're gonna look at chapter 1, chapter 1.

And I'm very excited because Exodus is, did some reading and some consider Exodus to be 1 of the cornerstone books of the Old Testament.

It's very interesting because it's the second book, but it's most referenced by many other Old Testament books.

And so it kind of sets the tone to enter into not only the promised land, but also the Old Testament, you know, all these references.

And Joe, if you can pray for us, and we'll get into the text.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this special opportunity to study your holy word.

We do desire your holy spirit to give guidance and to speak things to us through this text as we study together.

Let's go to Exodus chapter 1, and Jamami, can you read, let's see, Exodus chapter 1 verses, is it verse 8?

But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled with them.

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

And he said to his people, "'Look, the children of Israel are more and mightier than we.

"'Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, "'lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, "'that they also join our enemies and fight against us, "'and go up out of the land.'" Verse 11.

"'Therefore they set taskmasters over them "'to afflict them with their burdens, "'and they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Ramses.

But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew, and they were in dread of the children of Israel.

So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor, and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field.

All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.

There's a lot of crazy stories in Exodus, yeah?

And I think we kind of know the answer to this, but also it'd be good for us to talk about the issue.

Or were they allegories for spiritual messages, for spiritual freedom in the midst of bondage and adapting it to modern contemporary society?

Or is this just kind of Jewish history that's kind of boring and we gotta learn about all these names and stuff?

That's a great question and an important 1 too.

As we look at the Bible as a whole, we have to make a decision.

But beyond that, you also have to understand the Bible is a collection of books and some are historical books, some are poetry, some are deep theology, There's all kinds of variety from a literary.

And there are definitely parts in the Bible that are not to be understood literally, but symbolic.

Like there are a lot of prophecies, talking about these beasts, the amalgamations of beasts, those animals don't exist.

That is something you understand as symbolic.

But There is nothing in the book of Exodus, if you just look at the stories, that would say that this is just an allegory or some kind of story.

These are historical writings that reference real places, real people that have been, that you can find in history.

There's archeological evidence for these events that have taken place.

And then within the Bible, of course, Exodus is referenced to as actual events.

Jesus references, the whole Bible does it.

So if you believe in the word of God, if you believe in the Bible, and even if you look at it scientifically from a historical and archeological standpoint, there is much to say in favor of this being accurate description of history.

And you would think that maybe most Christians would agree on that, but it's not really that way.

Felecia Lee

02 Trying Your Own Way

Hey everyone, my name is Justin, this is Inverse, and we are in our second week in studying the book of Exodus.

I wanna encourage you to go to inversebible.org and download our Bible study guide.

And if you're a iPhone or Android phone user, you can go to the respective app stores and then download the Sabbath School app and then get the Inverse Bible Study Guides there.

You'll see, Joe, we have like what, 5 years, 6 years, 7 years, a lot of years of Bible Study Guides there.

So you can study up on all the old stuff and then study up on the new stuff too.

And for our show you can go to hopetv.org slash inverse and I can binge watch all the previous episodes especially last week's episode was really good on Exodus 1.

Today we're in Exodus 2 and already I said hey Joe, hey Jonathan, and then we have a new person, we have another new person on the show, we have Felicia.

Yeah, You don't have a J in your name, so there's a little bit of a...

We might call you that, so don't get offended if we call you Jalisha.

Last week we had Jemima on, another J, so she was cool.

But Felicia, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Give us a frame of reference of where you come from and where you're, yeah.

I am from the sunny islands of the Bahamas.

We live in New Hampshire, my husband and I.

It's a far, every time it's in the middle of winter, it's like, what am I doing here again?

But love and marriage will make you make sacrifices.

I'm currently the woman's ministry director for our conference.

We do a lot with couples and singles and communication and marketing.

So a little bit of everything, but primarily we just love teaching other people about loving Jesus.

Very excited to be studying Exodus with you.

Felicia, if you don't mind, if you can start us off with prayer.

Father, we are so excited right now to open your word.

We pray that you would open our minds so that the words that we read would implant themselves in our heart and change our minds and draw us closer to you, especially as we study how you moved in the life of Moses and saving the Hebrews.

Let's go to Exodus chapter 2, verse 11 through 15, and then Jono, can you read for us?

Now it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens.

And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, 1 of his brethren.

So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no 1, he killed the Egyptian and hit him in the sand.

And when he went out the second day, behold, 2 Hebrew men were fighting, and he said to the 1 who did wrong, Why are you striking your companion?

Then he said, Who made you a prince and a judge over us?

Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?

So Moses feared and said, surely this thing is known.

When Pharaoh heard of this matter he sought to kill Moses, but Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian and he sat down by a well." Okay, so we are kind of skipping around a little bit in the narrative here.

Last week, Joe, give us a little, what's a vignette of last week.

Well, we've got the Hebrews that are suffering affliction, they're slaves, it's getting worse.

And then Pharaoh feels threatened because they're multiplying and they're growing in population, and he commands that all the baby boys be killed, thrown into the Nile River.

There's 2 very courageous midwives that fear the Lord, and they do not throw the baby, kill the babies.

And then we get, this week we're getting to the story of Moses, which begins in chapter 2.

And we skipped over the beginning part, you know, the saving, the classic, I mean, you all should be familiar with the story, if not go watch the movie.

But here in verse 11 we kind of slow down and now Moses is a bit older, Yeah, and then describe what's going on here.

What's, why is this passage mentioned in scripture, Joe?

Well, in the book of Acts 7, Stephen's giving his speech, he tells a story, identifies the age as 40, so he's 40 now.

It is 40, but like why, why it's not mentioned in an Exodus, but then Stephen is about to die.

And then in prophecy, he just calls out that Moses was 40.

Like if you're about to die and you recall Jewish history and you're like, he was 40 years old.

I think that's a piece of information that he wanted to convey.

I'm sure there's something there that I just don't know.

I think it's just different ways of telling stories.

So In Exodus, we don't always have every detail, but sometimes the later writers retell stories and add little details.

Now Moses himself, he could have removed himself from it because he was adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh.

So he's okay, he's safe, he's wealthy, he's taken care of, but his people are not, they're slaves.

And it's this waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for God to do something.

And finally now Moses decides he's done waiting.

Or maybe he's been planning what he's going to do.

It's that contrast of what is God gonna do?

03 Encountering God

My name's Justin and you're on Inverse again.

We're so happy that you decided to tune in, whether it's by podcast or video or social media or by smoke screen.

We are glad you are with us at the Inverse Inverse Discussion table.

And at the table we have Jonathan, hello.

I was thinking of Aloha from back when Sebastian was around.

This is the All J cast, as all of our names start with J and all of you are here with us as well.

And we're gonna be studying the book of Exodus and we covered chapters 1 and 2, and now we're looking at chapters 3 and then onward, this is the part where, well, let's pray and we'll get into it.

Father, I thank you so much for in verse, the opportunity we have to study the Bible.

I pray that your spirit will help us to understand what is taking place in the story and to draw lessons to our personal lives and also see whatever call you have for us and what experiences you want us to have with you.

So we just commit this time into your hands and I pray you bless us here and those watching and listening as well in Jesus name.

If you're first time watching us, you can go to inversebible.org on your phones, and whether it's an app, you can download the Sabbath School app.

But if you go to the website, inversebible.org, you can download Bible study guides, and this 1 is entitled, Joe, It's entitled Exodus.

Well, let's go to chapter 3 of Exodus and Joe, if you can read verses 1 onwards to verse 6, please.

We'll probably read more because this is a good chapter.

Exodus chapter 3, he's been in the wilderness.

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro with his father-in-law, the priest of Midian.

And he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush.

So he looked and behold, the bush was burning with fire, But the bush was not consumed.

Then Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.

So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses.

Then he said, do not draw near this place.

Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

Moreover, he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

And Moses hit his face for he was afraid to look upon God.

Jemima, can you kind of keep us, Can you bring us up to date?

What did we cover in episodes 1 and 2, weeks 1 and 2?

Yeah, so in chapter 1, we were talking about the children of Israel, how they had gone over to Egypt because of a famine and there had increased in number and Pharaoh wanted to keep them as slaves so that they will not increase and revolt against him.

In chapter 2, we have where Moses' mom decides not to kill him.

And he puts it, she puts him on a river and Pharaoh's daughter discovers him and in that process, I guess Moses kind of has an idea that he's supposed to be the deliverer, but he ends up killing an Egyptian And it gets to Pharaoh and Pharaoh wants to kill him.

And then now we're in Joe, what, how old is Moses at the point of chapter 3?

Is that exact or is that thereabouts or is that just uncanny?

It's an interesting thing in the Bible that we have these numbers and things.

Like, is God, maybe God is doing this on purpose to, you know, to say, hey, I'm involved in history.

And, and I, I have my hand in this things and, you know, to kind of show it.

Cause 40 shows up again and 12 shows up and 7 and all these numbers.

Maybe it's just coincidence, but I think it's pretty exact.

I mean, if the Bible says it, I believe it.

And in that passage that Jemima just read, what are some things that come out immediately when you see this.

I was just imagining as he was reading, here's Moses.

He's been there for 40 years shepherding his sheep.

He was doing this and if you do something for 40 years, that's a long time, you know the ins and out of it.

It's second nature, you don't have to think much.

You're just kind of like doing the thing that needs to be done and you're living your life.

Moses has probably at this point, by far come to terms with the fact that he's no longer the Prince of Egypt.

He's just some random guy in the desert walking around with his sheep.

And so here's an aged man who doesn't have much outlook left in his life, is my guess here, because he had children of course, but it's not a huge family, it's not a massive thing that's going on here.

And how much was he still thinking of Egypt?

I don't know, after 40 years, you've kind of moved on, you know, like this is no longer, this is his history.

And so he's, this is, you know, you jump from chapter 2, where it's an intense situation to chapter 3, but 40 years, that's, you know, half a life that's just went by.

That's something to consider as we then look at the conversation he has with God.

I think he's not being completely unreasonable in his attitude.

So here's an aged man who may not have ever found his full potential or purpose.

Maybe he came to terms with it, but now he's faced with a very, very strange and crazy reality.

I think of, well, when I went to visit the Middle East, we went to go see kind of this wilderness area and the supposed sites for the burning bush.

And whether you believe in that or not, just the area of these rocky areas, there's just nothing there.

And in my cell phone addicted entertainment app, you know, screen world, it was painful.

But the longer I spent time there, that side went away and just kind of this more, I don't know what it is, just peaceful and okay with boredom mentality set in.

And I think that some people, It takes 40 years to get to a point where God can, when you grew up with the Egyptian magicians and the worldview and for 40 years, can you imagine like the parties, but also studying the book of the Egyptian book of the dead and studying about all the gods and all the incantations and all that stuff.

Just, we talked about it last episode, how much Moses had to unlearn to get to a point where he can start communing with God, right?

04 Confronting Pharaoh

My name is Justin, and we're so glad that you're here on Inverse.

Here we are with our headsets and our microphones and we're ready to get into a deep conversation.

And for that to happen, we need for you guys to be out there to be engaged with us.

We're gonna encourage you to go to inversebible.org and look at the Bible study entitled Exodus, the book of Exodus is what we are studying.

And in the studio we have, we have Felicia on my left, you're right, and we have.

And we have Jemima here, and it's an ongoing joke that we all have J names except for Felicia, and so her nickname is Jalisha.

And Jonathan's also welcome to the conversation.

I want to ask you before, well we'll have a word of prayer and Jemima you can pray with us, but afterward I want to ask you all, we have been, we're now just getting into Exodus, we're just, we got over the introduction and we're now we're getting into the confrontation part.

Father in heaven, thank you for this opportunity to come study your word and to be in your presence.

Lord, I ask for your Holy Spirit that he may open our hearts and open our minds, that we may get to know you more and get to strengthen that relationship with you.

I wanna ask you, because we don't just, we just don't like, we don't do a show here.

Ben and my 2 sisters will know like that we actually get a blessing out of the study itself.

And so I guess the question is, I wanna start with Jonathan and go around, like we've done 3 episodes already, 3 weeks.

What are some lessons that you've drawn out already that maybe you knew before and now you're re-reminded or you're completely new experience with the text from Exodus?

I mean, I just love doing inverse because group Bible study is just the best.

There's always an aspect you can't see yourself, someone else sees.

And that's why I believe God wants to come together to study Bible, not just here, but anyone, find a group study.

1 thing that I really appreciated in studying chapter 3 is the experience of Moses and the burning bush and in chapter 4 as well, his discussion that follows where God calls him to be this leader and savior for his people.

And he's kind of fighting it and discussing with God.

But what I found interesting is that here you have a supernatural experience, a supernatural manifestation of God, right?

I'm sure millions of people, millions of Christians would love to just have a supernatural experience.

Let me see, you know, like, let me see God, let me see something that is not like a trick, but like it's really from the divine.

And then I think that maybe the subconscious thinking often is if I have a supernatural, you know, manifestation that I see, then I'm gonna do the right thing.

Then I'm gonna be the right Christian or whatever it is.

But what we see here is like, Moses has this supernatural experience, right?

And he still is not willing to do what needs to be done.

And what we see then in the whole process is that it comes down to not so much seeing the supernatural, it's about believing the word that God speaks.

And while it takes Moses a little while and a little rebuking, he eventually does believe and does follow through with the word that God has spoken.

So that to me was an application to me because I've had my moments where like, God, can I like see an angel or, it would be so cool to like see something supernatural?

But I think the temptation can be like, you so much want that instead of just, hey, God has given you the supernatural word of God already, let's do that.

Series

InVerse 3rd Quarter 2025: The Book of Exodus

03 Encountering God

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

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