God’s Love Story

1. God’s Love Story Josh Spoelstra

2. Calling a People into Relationship Betrothal

3. Genesis 12.1-3 The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. ‘I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’

4. Gen 11.31-32 Haran Shechem Gen 12.4-6 Gen 11.28, 31

5. Betrothal Promises • The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you’ (Gen 12.1-3) • Land  Genesis 15.18-21 • Descendants  Genesis 17.1-8 • Blessings  Genesis 14.18-21

6. Generational Promises; or: Engagement Ring Heirloom

7. Generational Promises; or: Engagement Ring Heirloom Jacob said to Joseph, ‘God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me and said to me, “I am going to make you fruitful and will increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.” …

8. Generational Promises; or: Engagement Ring Heirloom Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. Any children born to you after them will be yours; in the territory they inherit they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers. …may [God] bless these boys’ (Gen 48.3-6, 16aβ).

9. Time in Egypt Foreseen ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure’ (Gen 15.13aβ-16).

10. Exodus from Egypt Foretold God also said to Moses, ‘I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they lived as aliens. …

11. Exodus from Egypt Foretold Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant. Therefore, say to the Israelites: “I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. …

12. Exodus from Egypt Foretold Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD”’ (Ex 6.2-8).

13. 10 Plagues: Yahweh vs. Egyptian gods 'For I will go through the land of Egypt… and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the LORD’ (Ex 12.12).

14. 1. Nile River changed to blood • Hapi • “a hermaphrodite, capable thus of both fertilizing that land (the male aspect) and also nourishing it (the female aspect)” (Stuart, Exodus, 131).

15. 1. Nile River changed to blood • Osiris • “Osiris is also identified as the god of the Nile since in Egyptian mythology Hapi apparently was his child” (Stuart, Exodus, 132).

16. 2. Frogs • Heket • “a frog-headed goddess, one of the female deites [sic] who presided over pregnancy and childbirth…[she] stood for the creation and regeneration of life” (Schulz, “Gods of Ancient Egypt” in Egypt, 522)

17. 3. Gnats • ? • Egyptian magicians unable to duplicate this plague  finger of God

18. 4. Flies • Khepri • “god of cyclical renewal and of the daily rising and variable aspects of the sun was depicted in the shape of a scarab beetle” (Schulz, “Gods of Ancient Egypt,” 522).

19. 5. Pestilence on the livestock • Hathor • “the goddess of love and maternity, the protecting deity of birth and regeneration” (Schulz, “Gods of Ancient Egypt,” 522).

20. 6. Boils • Sekhmet • goddess with healing abilities

21. 7. Hail • Nut • “the personification of the sky, and represented the feminine principle which was active at the creation of the universe” (Budge, EgyptianReligion, 120).

22. 8. Locusts • Min • the fertility god

23. 9. Darkness • Amon-Ra • the sun god • “time began when [Amon-]Rā appeared above the horizon at creation in the form of the Sun, and the life of a man was compared to his daily course” (Budge, EgyptianReligion, 126).

24. 10. Death of the firstborn • Pharaoh’s son • Each Pharaoh a god incarnate from the Egyptian pantheon. • By killing the next Pharaoh Yahweh was executing judgment on the next god of Egypt.

25. 10 Plagues: Yahweh vs. Egyptian gods 'For I will go through the land of Egypt… and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the LORD’ (Ex 12.12).