Life Groups // Fall 2023 // Week 2
Posted September 15, 2023 — Lincoln Berean
One Day at a Time // Exodus 2:1-25
Introduction
In Exodus chapter 2, we are introduced to Moses who will eventually become God’s leader to deliver the people out of Egypt. But before Moses can deliver Israel, he must be delivered. God’s deliverance of Moses from Egypt becomes paradigmatic of how God will deliver Israel from Egypt through Moses. Throughout Exodus there are numerous correspondences between Moses’ rescue and Israel’s rescue. In this chapter, eighty years pass with few details about a few events. The Hebrew people are in misery, what can they do against the powerful Egyptians? It’s one little step at a time.
To think through the main ideas in the sermon and prepare for your discussion together, we invite you to look over all the questions on the following pages and write your thoughts down before you meet with your group. Due to preferences over a wide range of groups, we do not expect you will cover every question each week.
Warm Up (Suggested time: 30 min)
1) Which of your five senses do you think would be the hardest to not be able to use?
2) Where were you born? Has that place had an impact on your life?
Getting Started
1) Open group discussion with prayer. Here are a few potential prayer items:
a. For the Spirit of God to lead you in truth
b. For the fruit of the Spirit to be cultivated in your lives
c. For grace to hear and apply what the Spirit says to you
2) Choose someone to read the passage aloud for the group.
Study Questions (Suggested time: 40 min)
1) What was particularly striking or memorable to you from Pastor Bryan’s message this past weekend?
2) In Exodus 2:1-10 Moses is born, and the first part of his deliverance takes place. In verses 2-3, Moses’ mother “saw that he was beautiful (literally good), so she hid him for three months” and then put him in a basket (literally ark) and placed it in the reeds by the bank of the Nile. What echoes of Genesis are in these two verses?
Pharaoh thought the boys were the threat, but God uses the women to deliver Moses and prepare for Israel’s deliverance. Throughout the first 10 verses different women are “seeing” Moses (vv. 2, 4, 5-6) and then they take action. What type of actions do they take and what do we learn from this?
How does this illustrate how we as believers participate in God’s work on earth?
With all that’s happening in our world today, what might it look like for you to be faithful one day at a time?
3) In Exodus 2:11-22 we see the second part of Moses’ deliverance from Egypt. It involves realization, action (including mistakes), fleeing and rest. Where do you see each of these in these verses?
Between verses 10 and 11 at least 40 years pass. Look at the following passages Hebrews 11: 23-26 and Acts 7: 17-30. How do these passages fill in the gaps of information in Exodus 2?
Was Moses right or wrong in killing the Egyptian? Why?
4) The second 40 years of Moses’ life were spent in very different surroundings. Rather than Pharaoh’s palace in Egypt, Moses is in the land of Midian, shepherding sheep. Some scholars would even say this was God’s wilderness training school, preparing him for his role in God’s work. Moses even names his son indicating he is a sojourner in a foreign land (v. 22). How has God used wilderness times in your own life to grow you? In hindsight, can you see how He was preparing you for what came next in your life? If so and you are willing, share it with your group.
This chapter ends telling us four times that God is aware of the plight of his people (vv. 24-25). He has (1) heard the cry of the Israelites, (2) He remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, (3) God saw the sons of Israel and (4) God took notice of them. From the beginning of chapter 1 of Exodus to the end of chapter 2 covers at least 80 years. What does this tell us about how God works?
Based on the different people we see in these first two chapters of Exodus, what does it look like to be faithful while waiting on God in the midst of struggle?
In an area of struggle in your own life, what does it look like to take a step of faithfulness this week?
Personal Spiritual Exercises
Just like physical exercises help strengthen and stretch our bodies for healthy living, these spiritual exercises are meant to move us spiritually in ways that may be new so we might experience inner growth. Since God longs for us to experience Him with our whole selves—mind, body, spirit—we invite you along each week to strengthen your souls with suggestions and prompts. Next week in Life Group, take a few moments to share how the Lord may have used this exercise in your life.
Scripture Focus: The Israelites were crying out to God in their suffering for a long time and it may have seemed that God did not hear them or care or answer or was unable to answer. This is often how it feels to us. Psalm 42 is a cry for help in a time of trouble and exile. Consider reading Psalm 42:1-11 three times this week. After reading it slowly, take a moment to reflect on what word or phrase the Holy Spirit is emphasizing to you. Write a response to the Lord in your journal.
Prayer Focus: Multiple people in this passage “see” Moses the way God sees him and this chapter ends with God “seeing” the Israelites in their suffering. Consider praying the prayer below each morning as a way of asking God to help you see people the way He sees them.
Lord, in the silence of this newborn day,
I come to request your peace, wisdom, strength.
Today I want to see the world with eyes full of love.
To be patient, understanding, humble, gentle, and good.
To see your children behind outer appearances, as you see them also.
So that I can appreciate the goodness in each one.
Close my hearing to all murmuring.
Guard my tongue from all evil.
That only your thoughts that bless others remain in me.
I want to be so well intentioned and good that all who draw near to me feel your presence.
Transform me with your goodness (kindness) Lord and make that in this day I reflect you. Amen
Prayer (Suggested time: 20 min)
A significant part of “coming together” is being open and honest with our lives. Sitting in a group of people for prayer may be new or it may be familiar to you. If you would rather not pray aloud when it is your turn, feel free to pray silently and then say “Amen” aloud signaling the next person in the group to pray. Whether or not you choose to verbalize your prayer, everyone is a participant in sharing this time before God together.
Take a few moments to prepare a prayer request. What did the message, working through the above questions or the discussion cause you to notice about your own relationship with Jesus? Would you be willing to share your prayer request with the group?