Exodus

It's dawn and the ESV Literary Study Bible awaits. This morning I begin in Exodus with the Exodus. God has just finished hammering the nation of Egypt with "10 mighty blows" which the ESVLB says is the meaning of the original Latin for "plague".
From the opening salvo of the passage on through the end of the Pentateuch (heck include the rest of the Bible) the major theme present is the glory of God in delivering his people. This is the penultimate old testament moment of salvation. It is met with worship first because people love to see God work but soon afterward the cycle of murmuring and judgment sets in.
A key moment for me was actually the salvation of Jethro, Moses' father in law.

Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.” -Exodus 18:11 ESV

For me it's a significant quote for a couple of reasons. First it is the salvation moment of a human being who turns and recognizes that there is no God above YHWH. Second, thanks to Michael Heiser I've been thinking allot lately about the gods of the nations surrounding Israel. I'm not going to replicate his work you can read it for yourself. Many of the gods which the nations worshiped are what we would recognize as demons - that is, fallen angels. Jethro's comment opens up a world of cultural understanding when we combine it with God saying that he executed judgment on the gods of Egypt through the plagues. (Exodus 12:12, Numbers 33:4) God wasn't merely attacking the mentality of the Egyptians in the plagues, he was rendering judgment on the spirit beings behind the idols which Egypt worshiped.

It's only day two and it's been a hassle to find a block of time to read today. Normally I would do my reading in the morning but I had breakfast with one of the men from church today and it was lots of fun.
Turning to the text it's back to the epic. Jacob the deceiver is about to meet his estranged brother; but even that choice encounter can't happen until the chosen son comes face to face with the Angel of the Lord in a wrestling match. Having survived his encounter with God the man named Israel meanders his way to the promised land and the story makes a monumental shift to his beloved son, Joseph who's tragic but divinely ordained life capitalizes the balance of Genesis.

Exodus opens before us many years after the Israelites first went down to Egypt as a small group of 75, but now they have become hundreds of thousands. Reading the first twelve chapters of Exodus in one sitting (notwithstanding reading the last 1/2 of Genesis at the same time) is massive. We cover eighty years of Moses' life but we do so in a brief time period in which the largest balance is given to the deliverance of Israel from cruel oppression.

The ESV Literary Study Bible's notes during the last part of Genesis are almost more commentary rather than pointing out the literary characteristics of the book - this is largely a function of trying not to be overly repetitious though. I appreciate the brevity of the chapter introductions which give just enough information to help you frame what's going on without beating you over the head with information.