God the Provider/9-17-17/Exodus 14: 5-14, 21-28; Exodus 16: 1-4a, 6-15, 31/ Rev. Rodger Allen
We looked, off and on this summer, at the stories of God and a multi-generation family in the book of Genesis: God with Abraham and Sarah; with Isaac and Rebekah; with Jacob, Leah, and Rachel; with Joseph. And we learned, among other things, that out of that history came a name for God that recurs throughout the rest of the Bible: “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Two Sundays ago, we heard an Old Testament story that comes only a couple pages after Joseph, but 400 years later: God calling to a man named Moses, from a burning bush, to give him a mission of leading the descendants of Abraham and Isaac out of slavery in Egypt. Moses, and God, carry out a series of plagues on the Egyptians, which convinces them to let their Hebrew slaves go. We see God in these stories as “God the Liberator,” freeing the people of God. […]