In this sermon, Scott LaPierre discusses the significance of the Old Testament, focusing on the books of Genesis and Exodus. He explains the importance of the word 'seed' in Genesis 3:15, which refers to a specific descendant, Jesus Christ. The sermon outlines how people in the Old Testament were saved by faith and how God restored the line of the Messiah after Cain killed Abel by providing Seth. The speaker then moves on to discuss the significance of God choosing Abraham and his descendants, leading to the tribes of Judah and Levi, which were important in the Old Testament. The tribe of Judah was the kingly tribe from which all kings, including Jesus, came, while the tribe of Levi was the priestly tribe.

Father, thank you for this time this morning. We want to understand your word, and I pray that you would speak through me, use me as your vessel to provide clarification and understanding and open people's hearts. Give them, kind of like we talked about in this morning's sermon, spiritual insight and understanding. I pray for these kids, Lord, and ask that you would give them a love for your word, which I think can be helped by an understanding of it and the good framework for the Old Testament. And I pray that you would bless the adults, too, our conversations, our questions, everything that takes place this morning.

Pray it can be pleasing to you Lord and look over these coming weeks and we pray these things in Jesus name, amen. Amen, amen, amen. So primarily I'm gonna be trying to hear from kids but if adults have questions or contributions feel free to raise your hand But I like when I ask questions to see what we can get from the kids first. I'm going to put most of the verses up here. So if you want to open your Bibles, we're going to be working our way.

We're going to begin in Genesis 3. So if you want to take a look there, I will have the verses up here. So begin with Genesis 3 15. So we know what took place in Genesis 3, the fall. The devil came in and tempted Eve and Eve ate and gave some of the fruit to her husband Adam and then he ate.

The fall took place. God discusses the curse that is on man and women and on the devil and this is an important verse with God speaking to the devil and this is what God says to him. So you can look in your Bibles, Genesis 3 15, or look up here. God says to the devil, I'm going to put enmity, your hatred, between you and the woman and between your seed or your descendants. And the devil doesn't...

Seed means child. Seed means child. I want you to think when you see the word seed, think of child or descendant. Kind of like a tree, you know, trees have seeds and then those seeds produce other trees. So this isn't a very common word for us to use this way, so that's why I'm explaining it.

So all the kids here, you hear children or hear seed, think child. And so God is saying that there's going to be a seed or descendant of the devil, and that just means those people who belong to the devil, who are His children spiritually. I'm gonna put hatred between you and the woman and between your children and her children or her seed. And I want you to notice right there, super important if your Bible doesn't have the word seed capitalized, that it is capitalized in many Bibles because it's referring to a very special, specific seed. So even if your Bible doesn't have the word seed capitalized, in Genesis 3.15, I want you to notice that at least up here in New King James, King James, a few others, seed is capitalized because it's referring to a very specific seed.

It says that this seed, and I want you to notice this, it says this seed, he shall bruise. Yes, Ricky? Mine doesn't say spring. It says offspring. It might say offspring instead of seed.

Offspring also means child or descendant to. It says he, this is that seed, is going to bruise or crush your head. So this is really important. You got to follow me here. The devil just learned at this moment that a seed of the woman is going, it says bruise, but think crush, his head.

So the devil learned that he's going to be defeated, his head is going to be crushed by a seed or descendant of the woman. Everyone see that? All the kids see that? And It also says that you shall bruise his heel, which refers to the devil inflicting a wound on this seed. Now who knows who this seed is?

Looking for a kid to answer here. Mr. Matala? This is looking forward to Jesus. This is looking forward to Jesus.

This seed is the Messiah or is the Savior. Okay, go ahead and come in. We still have spots and there's chairs if you need to grab. We know more people will be coming in. That's fine.

All the couches are open. That's what's nice, Brian. You come in late, you get a whole couch to yourself and for your family. And so, yep. All right.

Now listen, this is important. As soon as sin was introduced I want you to notice this as soon as sin is introduced on the pages of Scripture what else is introduced and I'm Alberto a death was introduced yes that's true We know that from the New Testament, very good. What do we see specifically in this verse? What's introduced as soon as sin is introduced? Jack?

Christ. A way to be saved from that sin. As soon as sin is introduced in Scripture, the Savior is introduced. A way to be saved from that sin, Jesus himself. And people in the Old Testament like, okay, raise your hand, by a show of hands, if you have ever looked and seen Jesus or maybe stood near him.

You haven't. So you believe in Jesus by faith. You can't see him. Well, it was the same for people in the Old Testament. We are looking back at the cross trusting that Jesus came.

People in the Old Testament were looking forward in faith believing that Jesus was going to come and die for them and save them. So as soon as sins introduced, a savior or the seed is introduced, and people could be saved at this moment the exact same way we're saved by grace through faith as they look forward to that seed. So one thing you can know is people were saved throughout the Old Testament just like we're saved in the New Testament by looking to Christ. We just look at them from opposite sides of the cross, right? If this is the cross, they're looking forward to Him coming and we're looking back on Him coming.

Now the next question is if the devil learned that a seed or Messiah, a seed is going to come and crush his head. The devil learned he's going to be defeated by a child of Eve or of the woman. What do you think the devil is going to want to try to do? Any guesses? Johnny?

Kill him. That was really good. Yeah, it's very good. He's going to want to kill him. He is going to want to kill him.

He's going to want to disrupt the line that this seed comes from. He's going to want to try to destroy that seed, crush that seed's head before the seed can crush him. Satan is not omniscient. Now that's kind of a fancy word that means Satan doesn't know everything. Who's the only omniscient or all-knowing person?

God. God is the only one who knows all things. The devil doesn't. So you want to know something interesting? Just as people in the Old Testament were learning as Revelation was given, the devil was also learning.

So before Genesis 3 15, if the devil thought he was going to be defeated, the devil was an angel, what could he probably think would defeat him? The devil's an angel, so if he's going to be defeated, he would probably think he's going to be defeated by what? Another angel, maybe Michael. Right? Michael's kind of the equivalent there, militaristic.

Michael leads the armies, it seems, of heaven. So the devil probably thought he was going to be defeated by an angel, and He learns that he's going to be defeated by a seed or descendant of the woman that's gonna crush his head. So he learns this. And then Satan, who would Satan think, who would Satan think is that seed? Let's think Eve had who?

Eve had who? What children? Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel. So he's looking and he's thinking that Abel is that seed or that child that is going to crush his head.

So what Satan wants to do is he wants to kill Abel. Or he wants to, and if Abel's not the one that's gonna crush him, he wants to disrupt that line or stop that line, line being father, son, son, son, son, son, so the Messiah can't come into the world. That's what I mean by line, the line of fathers and then children going down to stop that Messiah from coming into the world. So he tries to disrupt this line and God or Satan uses Cain to murder Abel. Now we don't know that in Genesis 4, but we do read it in the New Testament in 1 John 3.12, Cain was of the evil one, or he belonged to the devil and murdered his brother.

Now here's the thing. The Messiah was going to come through Abel. Abel was going to have a son who'd have a son who would have a son who would have a son and go all the way down. Son, son, son, son, son, son, son, son, son, grandson, grandson, great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson, all the way down until the Messiah or until Jesus comes into the world. But right now when Cain killed Abel, what's gonna happen?

Well now, is the Messiah gonna come through Cain? No, I mean he belongs to the devil. He belongs to the wicked one. So there's no way that the Messiah is going to come from Cain. There's no way Cain is going to be in that lineage or that line.

So what God does is He restores the line. He restores the line. Does anyone know who God provided to restore that line so the Messiah could come into the world? Clara? Seth.

Seth, very good. Genesis 4.25, Eve bore a son and named him Seth, and then notice this, for God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel whom came killed." So Seth replaced Abel. So now the line for the Messiah to come into the world can continue. And that word seed, when you hear that word seed in Genesis 4, what does that take your minds to? Takes your mind to.

Genesis 3 connects you back to Genesis 3 15. The seed of the woman. Now that line has been restored. Luke 3 38, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God." And so when you're reading Luke and it's got that line and it says and it works all the way back from Jesus all the way back to the Adam, we see that line going through Seth. Any questions at this point?

Okay. This line also produced or allowed for godly people. The next verse, so Genesis 4.25, talks about Seth being born, and then the next verse, Genesis 4.26, says, And as for Seth, to him also a son was born, and he named him Enosh on the notices, so you don't miss it, got it in bold and underlined for you. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord. So this line, this godly line that came from Seth, allowed for godly people who are going to seek God, look for Him, call out for Him.

So Even though Seth was not the Messiah, and Eve wouldn't know that, Eve is going to be wondering which son ends up being this Messiah. Even though Seth wasn't the Messiah, he established this line that was going to allow for godly people who were going to call on the name of the Lord. All right, now, Satan tried to disrupt this line and stop the Messiah from coming into the world by murdering Cain. And when he lost this little skirmish and God restored the line through Seth. Let me ask you this.

Do you think Satan's just going to give up now? Is Satan just going to give up? No, definitely not. You only go a couple of chapters later, Genesis 6, Satan tries to pollute the line by really polluting all of humanity, all of mankind. We're not going to read all of these verses, but things got so bad, things got so ugly.

Satan worked so hard and created so much wickedness on the face of the earth trying to pollute mankind and prevent the Messiah or seed from coming into the world to defeat him that what did God have to do? He kind of had to wash it clean. He had to just cleanse it all. He had to wash it all clean. If you look in verse 5 up here, this is how bad things got.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every intention of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually so bad all these evil people everyone just thinking wicked thoughts look at the next part that's bolded and underlined, verse seven, the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the earth. So he's just going to wipe everyone out. Let me ask you this. Was God actually going to wipe out every single last person? Because he wanted to continue or keep what?

That what? The line. The line. So God preserves the line again and the line goes through who? I only heard like two people.

The line goes through who? This isn't real tough. There weren't that many people that made it on the ark. Yeah, the line goes through Noah. Genesis 6, 8.

But Noah, so a few verse right after that, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord and the line continued. Now it could have looked close. It could have looked close. It could have looked like Satan almost got this victory, but God, and he did end up polluting much of mankind, but God continued that line through Noah. Alright, after Noah we got to go forward.

Who's the next prominent person that shows up on the pages of scripture that you can see is going to be part of this line to bring the Messiah into the world? Who kind of shows up after the flood? The God chooses, sovereignly. Of all the people he could choose, he chooses this man. Who said that?

Yep, he chooses Abraham. You get to Genesis 12 right after the flood. Okay, go ahead and look up here. We're gonna be on this slide for a little bit. I want to discourage you guys.

I'm not saying you can't watch movies. I'm not saying you can't watch shows or things like that. You guys watch shows or movies. You guys are all of us because we like drama. We like excitement.

I'm going to tell you who is super dramatic in a good way, not like in an emotional, negative way, and that's God. So what God does, when God chooses the person who's going to create the nation that his son is going to come from, he could have chosen people who had lots of children. Instead, God chooses a man named Abraham, who had a wife named Sarah, and how many children had Abraham and Sarah had? And not only had they not had any, how many children could they have? They couldn't.

She couldn't have children. It was a terrible thing. She is a woman who literally could not have children. It's one of the worst curses or trials for women to have to endure, and it was terrible. She couldn't have any children.

And so God looks and He says, okay, I know who I'll choose. I will choose a man who's married to a woman who can't have any children. And I'm gonna take this man and I'm gonna make a great nation from him. A great nation from this man. So look up here, I'll read it kind of quickly.

Look at the first verse there, Genesis 12. God said to Abraham, go from your country, your kindred, your father's house, to the land I'll show you. I will make of you a great nation I'll bless you and make your name great so you'll be a blessing and then look in verse 3 follow me up here I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you all curse. In you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Do you guys see that?

I can't use a red pointer, it won't show up. Do you see right here where it says, see I'm not very tall, so you got to follow my finger. All The families of the earth are going to be blessed through you. That's pretty amazing. One man is told that every single family, all of the families in the entire world that will ever live are going to be blessed through this man.

What could Abraham possibly have that would ever be able to be a blessing potentially to everyone who's ever lived? Come on, I'm looking for the answer here. Who knows? Who's going to come from Abraham or his descendants that's going to be a blessing to all people who've ever lived? Ricky?

Isaac. Isaac, that's true. And then from Isaac, Jacob, and we kind of go down, but eventually who's going to come from Abraham? Clara? Jesus.

Jesus. He's going to the Messiah. Jesus is going to, or the seed is going to come from this nation that God creates from Abraham. Okay, now look up at my little chart there with the squares. Let's just kind of start at the top with Abraham and let's just go down One at a time, nice and slowly.

And I'm looking for people to blurt out the answer here. Abraham had who? Isaac, very good. Isaac had Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. So these names just go together.

Abraham has Isaac, Isaac has Jacob, Jacob's name is changed to Israel, and then Jacob has who? Twelve sons. Twelve sons. Yes, blesses me. Twelve sons.

Those twelve sons are going to have children who have children, who have children, who have children, who have children, and become 12 tribes that are going to make up the nation of Israel. They're called the nation of Israel because Jacob's name was changed to Israel. So Isaac had another son Esau, and I'll just have you notice this. Actually look on the verse Genesis 25-22. Read that verse with me briefly.

The children Jacob and Esau when they were in the womb they struggled and it was concerning to Rebekah. She feels these children struggling in her womb and she cries out to God about it. And she said, if this is right or if it's thus, why is this happening to me? So she went to inquire the Lord. And then verse 23, God said to her, There's two nations in your womb.

Two people from within you shall be divided, and one shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger. This is what I want to tell you. Jacob and Esau started fighting in the womb. Two nations came from Jacob and Esau. And that's almost a little misleading because there's a number of nations actually that came from Esau.

But Jacob and Esau start struggling or quarreling in the womb. Two nations come from them, and what happens with these nations? What happens with these nations? They fight or struggle or quarrel. So here's what I want you to know.

The fighting or quarreling that was happening inside Rebecca's womb is the same fighting or struggling that continued after those babies are born between the two nations that ended up coming from them. And if you just kind of look with me, just like Jacob's name has changed to Esau, or just like Jacob's name has changed to Israel, Esau's name has changed to Edom. And from Edom, just like the Israelites came from Israel, the Edomites came from Edom, and the Amalekites, or Amalek, and then the Amalekites from Amalek, and then Agag, or from the Amalekites, and then the Agagites from Agag, and then a man named Haman. When you're reading, and this might, we might just move above the children for a moment if this is unfamiliar to some of them, but when you're, to just briefly address the adults, the reason I mention this here is when you're seeing that struggle that takes place in the book of Esther between Haman and the Jews, that's a struggle that doesn't go back just to 1 Samuel 15 with Saul slaughtering the Amalekites because Haman was an Amalekite or a descendant of Agag, the king of the Amalekites.

That struggle doesn't just go back to 1 Samuel 15. That struggle goes back to the very womb of Rebekah when those nations were struggling there. And so you've got even later the very satanic attempt to destroy the Jews in Esther's day. And how close did Haman get? I mean, he got very close, if not for Mordecai and Esther.

All right, so just briefly, look one more time at this chart. Abraham has Isaac, Isaac has Jacob, who becomes Israel. Israel has 12 sons. 12 sons become 12 tribes. The 12 tribes make up the nation of Israel and the Israelites and then Jesus is going to come from them.

Okay, now here's the next question. Thinking about this line, thinking that the Messiah is going to come from. I just said 12 sons, so what's the next question then? Can the Messiah come from all 12 sons? No, he can't.

So what's the next question? I'd like a child to answer this. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, 12 sons, what's the next question? 12 tribes. What's the next question?

What's the question, Alberto? Which son? Which son? There's 12 of them. So which son?

Which son are we talking about? Okay, so look up here again. You fast forward, we've left Genesis 12, we hit Genesis 25, now we are at Genesis 49. And so, well, if you had 12 sons, which one of these sons? And so that's kind of left out there.

If you're reading through Genesis, you don't know this. You don't know this revelation. You're waiting to find out the answer, which one of these sons that the seed of the woman is going to come from. So we go back to our chart. We've got Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.

Jacob has 12 sons. You get to Genesis 49 when Jacob is blessing his sons, and in Genesis 49 10, look at this verse with me, Jacob is speaking to his son Judah, and he says to him in Genesis 49 10, the scepter, What's a scepter? Who can tell me what a scepter is? Who can tell me what a scepter is? Yep, very good.

Like a staff? Like a And who has scepters? Kings. Kings, yes. Like a staff, yeah.

Like a king has. A staff, like for judgment, a king would hold this up. So that's very good. So when he says The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes. Some Bibles say tribute, some Bibles say Shiloh, but it could be capitalized because it's referring to the seat of the woman, or Jesus ends up getting a lot of names.

Another name is Shiloh. Another name is the lion of the tribe of Judah because he came from Judah. And so Shiloh comes to him, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. The one thing I want you to know here is when Jacob said this to Judah, God was speaking through Jacob and identifying that it's his son Judah that the Messiah is going to end up coming from of all of the 12 sons. So look back at the chart here.

Look at these squares, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Here's the 12 sons. And I just want to draw your attention first to Judah. Judah ends up having all of the kings, and when we get forward to Samuel and kings, we'll talk about this more. All the kings end up coming from Judah, the tribe of Judah, and one king in particular especially important because Jesus was known as the Son of Him, the Son of David, and then Jesus comes from there.

Now the next box has a bunch of small names. Don't worry about that right now. I just want to point out two other important tribes. Judah is the kingly tribe. Pretty easy to guess why, because the kings come from Judah.

So in your minds, you don't have to memorize all of the tribes. But you should memorize Judah is the kingly tribe. You need to know that Joseph actually, actually, pause. Don't look at Joseph yet. Look next to Joseph at Levi.

Look at Levi. Why is Levi an important tribe? Why was Levi important? Looking for someone. Baxter?

Priests. So God looks at the 12 tribes and he says, I'm going to need some people to serve in the temple. I'm going to need some people to be my priests until the true and greater high priest, Jesus himself comes, I'm going to need priests who provide intercession, who stand between me and my people, Israel. So he chooses the tribe of Levi to be the priestly tribe. To be the priestly tribe.

So The tribe of Levi is the priestly tribe like Judah is the kingly tribe. Okay. Now, this is not a true question. When God pulled the tribe of Levi away from the 12 tribes, how many tribes are left? Who just said 12?

We've got to help that person with math a tiny bit. You've got 12 tribes, you take the tribe of Levi away, how many tribes are left? Eleven. Eleven. Very good.

All right. Now, I don't know why I'm this side of heaven and I don't know if anyone does, but 12 is an important number to God. It is his number for government or his number for authority. He wants to maintain the integrity of 12 or he wants to get things back to 12. Just like kind of think 12 apostles.

So God needs to now have twelve tribes. So what he does is he takes Joseph, and Joseph actually becomes two tribes. So if you look here at Joseph, Joseph represents two tribes. He has a son named Ephraim, and he has a son named Manasseh, and now the integrity of 12 is maintained. This is why when you're reading the Old Testament and when you're reading Revelation and the 12 tribes are listed, sometimes the names are different.

The reason the names are different sometimes is because sometimes Joseph's included, sometimes Ephraim's included, sometimes Manasseh's included, sometimes Levi's included, and so anyway, that's why. But the other 10 tribes are almost always included. Okay, any questions on the tribes? We're making our, We're pushing forward here. We're coming toward the end of Genesis already.

And this is an important book because this is where everything starts. Any questions? Ricky? Ricky said isn't God's favorite number seven. Seven's a number of perfection or completion, so that very well could be his favorite number.

Twelve is a number of government. We don't know that it was his favorite. But seven is a good number. We have that many children right now, but a lot of, so we'll see if God gives us more hopefully. All right, any questions?

All right. The first five books. We've kind of got Genesis down and before we go into Exodus, I want to talk about the first five books in your Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Numbers. These five books go together.

All the kids are, I want you to think of these five books going together. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, these go together. They have a few different names. Like How many sides does a pentagram have? How many sides does a pentagram have?

What does penta mean? Five. Penta means five. The first five books of the Bible were also called the Pentateuch because they're five books. They're also called the Torah and Torah means law.

The first five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, are also called the Torah, because Torah means law, and these are the books that present the law. And they're also called the books of Moses. Why are the first five books called the books of Moses? Because he's in all of them? Why are the first five books called the books of Moses?

Who can tell me? Clara? He wrote them because Moses wrote them. They're also called the books of Moses because Moses wrote them. So these five books, Penitut, Torah, Books of Moses, they were all originally one book.

Aren't you glad that it's not one book? And so when you had your family Bible study and you have to try to find that one place and there's no chapter and verses, and you got to look through all those few hundred chapters to try to find that, or millions or thousands of words, tens of thousands of words. But it was originally one book. The first five books in your Bible were originally one book. Now the reason I tell you that, this is important, make sure you give me your attention.

This explains why Exodus picks up or starts right where Genesis ended. And this explains why Leviticus picks up right where Exodus ended. And this explains why Leviticus goes right into Numbers and explains why Numbers goes right into Deuteronomy because it's really like one book. So if you're reading as a family and you finish Genesis and your kids are like, oh, I'm on the edge of my seat. I can't wait to see what happened with Joseph and his kids and Egypt and his family and everything.

What's going on? And your kids are super thrilled to keep going. Will you say, hey, let's just turn to the right one chapter to Exodus 1 and the story continues. And so it's really one book and that explains the continuity there. Now the Jews, the first five books held a very special place in their heart.

Or these five books were super important to them. This was really their Bible for a lot of years. This was their scriptures. This is what they had. They just had these five books for a lot of years.

So we should not elevate certain books of the Bible ahead of other books. But the Jews typically did that. And that's why in Jesus' day, you see them giving special attention or reverence for those five books. This was their Bible for many years. Here's what you need to know.

The first five books, Genesis through Deuteronomy, record the history of Israel, or you could say record the line of the Messiah, up to the Promised Land. Let me say one more time, the first five books record the history of Israel, which is really to say the history or line of the Messiah, right up to the promised land. I don't think we'll get through all five this morning, but let's talk about the first one. Just to briefly review, Genesis is the beginning of everything. Genesis discusses the, actually, what is the only thing that doesn't discuss having a beginning in Genesis?

It's troubling, my kids ask me this. Who doesn't have a beginning in Genesis? He just shows up. My kids, we struggle with this in our finite minds. My kids say, well, how did God not have a beginning?

And just follow me when I explain, follow me for a second. Even if God had a beginning, that doesn't solve anything. Because if you say, OK, God had a beginning, God was created, or God started, what is the next question or objection you have? Who made God? Rhea?

Who made God? Who made God? How did God start? Where did God—how was God created? So then you're like, okay, okay, I'll solve that.

Another God or something else created God. But then you're still left with the same question because who created whatever created God. And so there's no other solution except to simply accept what Genesis 1.1 says, that in the beginning God created everything and God was. That's why He is I Am. The pre-existent, pre-eternal One who always has been, always will be.

Not I was, not I will be, but I am. I always exist eternally. Eternity past, eternity future, God is. I am. And so there's no way around it.

You just accept what Genesis 1-1 says. But everything except for God has its beginning there in Genesis 1-1. Creation, man, sin, Israel. God calls Abraham, who has Isaac, who has Jacob, changes his name to Israel. Israel has 12 sons.

Genesis ends with them moving into Egypt. We're getting close to Exodus. Now look up here. Exodus picks up right where Genesis left off, but it's real subtle. I'll make sure you don't miss it.

You're reading Exodus 1, and all of a sudden, here's one verse, it jumps forward 430 years. And if you're not paying attention, you can almost miss it. You're reading Exodus 1, 430 years pass between two verses. Those 12 sons, over that 430 years, guess what those 12 sons had? Who said it?

Children. Who had children, who had children, who had children, who had children, who had children, and these 12 sons became 12 tribes. Now, the nation of Israel is born. Exodus records Israel's exit or exodus from Egypt. The book of Exodus ends with Israel seated or camped at the base of Mount Sinai.

So let's take a look here. We're going to go from 12 sons to 12 tribes. All right. If you've been in this church for any period of time, and probably you're in a family where you've even been able to witness this. You've watched, and I'm not trying to make a joke or anything, when you're going to have a younger brother or sister, you're watching your mom get bigger and bigger, right?

She's swelling. Your mom is swelling as this baby is growing inside of her. The baby keeps growing until finally that baby has to be born. And the baby can't just stay there. The baby can't stay in your mom forever.

And so about nine months then your mom gives birth and this baby is born. But your mom keeps that baby or holds on to that baby, surrounds that baby while that baby is growing, and then that baby is born from your mother. That's Egypt. That's what Egypt did or served as for the nation of Israel. Egypt served as this womb or surrounded the nation of Israel for Israel to grow in a very safe and secure way.

Now the world has taken a turn in one of the wickedest ways in murdering babies that are in the womb. But for the most part, one reason that I want you to think of Egypt as a womb, is when a baby is in the womb or inside the mother, that baby is very safe in there and can grow very, very safely. And that's what Egypt did. Now let me ask you this, and this might be above some of the kids, but it answers an important question we can have. Where could Israel not grow as a nation because of the threat or danger to them?

Where could Israel not grow as a nation because of the threat to them? Ethan? Canaan. The reason I mentioned that is here's a very obvious question you could have. If God wants to give Canaan or the Promised Land to the nation of Israel like he promised in Genesis 12, why didn't God just do what with Joseph and his family?

Why didn't he just do what? Come on, come on, come on. Come on. Nobody, my wife's shaking her head. Why didn't God just bring them right into Canaan?

Why didn't God just bring them right into the promised land, those promised to them, and let them grow there? Why did they have to be in Egypt and grow there? What would have happened if Israel would have grown as a nation in Canaan? I guess this is the simplest way to say it. They would not have grown as a nation.

They would have become Canaanites. They would have become Canaanites because what would they have done? Who can tell me? Who said that? Yeah, they would have intermarried, they would have adopted the practices and and satanic evil worship of the Canaanites.

Now, there's a little verse in Genesis that can escape you or in Exodus, they can escape you. No, it's in Genesis, sorry. They can escape you. And the significance of it, does anyone remember where Joseph, even though he was super popular and super respected, used to eat? Who remembers where Joseph used to eat?

No, that's not right. Who remembers how Joseph used to eat? How did Joseph used to eat? Who knows? Anyone remember the verse?

Anyone know? By himself. He used to eat by himself. Why did Joseph eat by himself? Why are you even told that?

Why did he eat by himself? Andrew? He was an Egyptian. And the Egyptians are not going to have anything to do with the Hebrews. Joseph is not an Egyptian.

And Even if you're Joseph, the most respected man who saves the nation, the Egyptians are not even going to eat with you. So Egypt was a very safe womb for Israel to grow. Canaan wasn't. And in fact, when they went into Canaan, that was the greatest, or went into the promise line, that was the greatest threat to them. So in Exodus 1, look up here at Exodus 1.

Look at these verses with me. Don't start tending out. Stay with me. Stay with me here. Exodus 1, I tried to put the verses.

Can you guys see the verses in bold? Do those stand out or do I need to make them bigger? Well, are those bold enough or do those need to be bigger? Is it bold enough? Does verse five stand out?

Not really? Okay, okay, okay. Well, that's good to know. I'll try to fix that next week. Look at verse five.

All the descendants of Jacob were 70 persons. So Israel went into Egypt and how many were there? Not a trick question. Seventy or 71 if you count Joseph. Then look in verse seven.

The people of Israel were fruitful and they increased greatly. They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong. So, the land was filled with them. They're swelling. You know how your mother starts swelling?

When she's going to have a baby, she's getting bigger and bigger. She's swelling. The nation of Egypt is swelling with all of the Hebrews or Israelites. Four hundred thirty years pass between verses seven and eight. Those seventy people in all of their growth and multiplication, or Egypt is swelling with them, They grow to two and a half million people.

Well, it says 600, 000 men. So the suspicion is or the guess is if you have 600, 000 men, then you're probably looking at two and a half million people. We don't know for sure, but we knew there was at least 600, 000 men, probably somewhere around two and a half million people. So over those 430 years that Israel is in slavery, that's how much they grew and it's about time for the birth, for Israel to be born out of Egypt. The Pharaoh was the king of Egypt, looked at Israel and saw them as a threat, was terrified of them because of how strong and powerful they were becoming.

So the king says, we got to do something about this. I mean, we got like a serious immigration problem. They're going to take over our nation. So we need to start punishing them. We need to start enslaving them.

And who has not given up trying to destroy the Messiah from coming into the world? Satan. Oh, man. I love it. Satan attacks again.

Exodus 1.15. The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew, or you could think Jewish or Israelite midwives, one of whom is named Shiphrah and the other, Puah, when you serve as a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birth stool, if it's a son you shall kill him. If it's a daughter, she shall live. Can you guys understand how terribly evil this is? Imagine the wickedness of this if a boy is born, because they don't have ultrasounds to see ahead of time if it's going to be a boy or a girl.

So they've got to wait till this baby's born. And if it's a boy, we're going to murder. We're going to murder that boy. And this is satanic. This is another attack.

OK. Now I want you to follow me on something. Give me your attention. Don't start tuning out. Throughout the Old Testament, you get to see different people who look like Jesus.

You get to see different people who are pictures or types or shadows of Christ. And one of the clearest pictures or types or shadows of Christ is Moses. Moses is a deliverer, Jesus is a deliverer in the true and greater way. So there's often a New Testament parallel. There's something in the New Testament that's very similar to what's in the Old Testament.

Okay, now let me ask you, I'm looking for a kid to answer this for me. We just saw an exodus where these male babies are being born or being murdered right around the time of Moses' birth. All these babies are being murdered right around the time of Moses' birth. Can we think of anything in the New Testament that sounds like that? Any children?

Mary? Listen, stand up and Say it loudly. Oh, if you have stuff on your lap, sorry. Say it loudly, Mary. Perfect.

It's prefiguring. It's looking forward to. It's foreshadowing. Moses, a type of Christ. Right around to stop Moses from coming into the world, Pharaoh starts murdering all the babies.

You go to the New Testament. Matthew 2, Herod, the Old Testament picture type of Pharaoh starts murdering all the babies. Pharaoh wanted to stop Moses from coming into the world. Herod wanted to murder or stop Jesus from becoming king. So that's a similarity there.

Matthew 2.16, Herod, when he saw that he'd been tricked by the wise men, He became furious. He sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and all that region who were two years old or under according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. I mean, unbelievably evil to murder all these babies, but we've seen it before. We saw the exact same thing in Exodus when Pharaoh was trying to, or the devil, was trying to prevent Moses from coming into the world. All right, now Satan attacked.

If Satan attacked, what do you expect to happen next? It's like a chess match. Does anyone play chess? Anyone play chess? All right.

And all of you who did not raise your hand right now, you need to go home and tell your parents to teach you. It's like a chess match. So when you're playing chess, You move a piece, your opponent moves a piece, you move a piece, and it's a chess match back and forth like this. And God has been playing chess with the devil, except it's like a chess match that there's no danger of God losing. Remember, earlier I said God's into the dramatic.

He's got a flair for it. So it's a chess match. So again, if we see Sane Attack, what's going to be next? Sane Attack, what's next? Who moves next?

Piper. Do you have an answer? No? Johnny? No, you're not Johnny.

You think I'd recognize my own son. He's behind Jack. Go ahead, Mr. Offit. God moves.

Here's the move. You guys want to see what he does in the chess match? Exodus 1.17. The midwives, they feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded, but they let the male children live. Now, it could have looked real bad there because it looks like Satan gets the upper hand, the Messiah is not coming into the world, the lioness disrupted, All the male babies are murdered.

God works through the midwives. Moses is born. The New Testament parallel, Matthew 2.13. When they departed, behold the names of the Lord. I don't, and you read all the verses, just give me your attention, I'll tell you what happened.

How did God protect his son after his son had been born? What did God do? How did he protect his son when all these babies were being murdered? This is like the Nativity account. I mean, we're going a little past it.

Clara? I have been to the open house. Very good. Very good. So it's interesting.

I don't want you to miss the similarities. Now Jesus ends up taking a trip down to Egypt. Jesus is sent down to Egypt where he's protected from being murdered like all those babies who are being murdered. So here, just look up here. I want you to read this, see this.

We're not going to spend a whole lot of time on it, but it's worth drawing your attention to. Israel's exodus from Egypt looked forward to Jesus' exodus from Egypt. Let me say one more time. When Israel came up out of Egypt, you look at that and you're like, okay, Israel came out of Egypt. There was something much greater that God wanted to reveal from that.

That's not my opinion. Look at the last verse right here. Just so you're not listening and saying, oh, Pastor Scott's making this up. No, look at verse 15 right here. This is to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, out of Egypt I have called my son.

So when Israel came up out of Egypt, that's about Israel, but even more, that's looking forward to who coming up out of Egypt? Jesus. When Israel left Egypt, that exodus was made to Jesus' exodus from Egypt. And Hosea, I think that's Hosea 11. I might be wrong.

Anyway, it's Hosea that made that prophecy, identifying Israel's exodus as a prophecy of or prefiguring or foreshadowing of Christ's exodus from Egypt. All right, that's it. We're not done. That's not what I meant, but That's it for Exodus. We're done with two books now.

Leviticus will go a little faster. We're not going to spend too much time in Leviticus. Leviticus picks up, any questions or anything? Questions, thoughts, contributions? How are we doing?

Are we still holding on okay? Is this too much? Are we doing okay? Okay. Leviticus, next book after Exodus.

Leviticus picks up right where Exodus left off. Let's see who's paying attention. Israel left Egypt. Israel left Egypt and where did they go? We know they went through the Red Sea, but they went to where?

Not the promised land. They went to the wilderness. Where did they go first? Something important had to happen there. God has got his son.

God got his son, Israel, out of Egypt. Israel is called a son looking forward to Christ. Baxter, he brings his son or he brings Israel to Mount Sinai. He brings his son to Mount Sinai. That's where Exodus ended with Israel at the base of Mount Sinai and Leviticus picks up right there, with Israel at the base of Mount Sinai.

So Leviticus picks up right where Exodus left off. Israel's at the base of Sinai. And give me your attention so you notice this. The book of Leviticus, how long is it? If you want to cheat, you can look up at the screen.

How long is the book of Leviticus? Who said that? You're a sharp guy, Baxter. He's just looking right at that. Very good.

One month. How long was Exodus? How long was Exodus? I know why you said that. How long is the book of Exodus?

I should have been clearer. David? The book of Exodus. We went into the beginning of Exodus with Joseph. They're in slavery.

Slavery ends. Clara? About 30 years, 440 years, something like that. Exodus, you just, just think of this, you just went from Exodus 430 years to one month. So you just jumped from 430 years of history in Exodus, although most of that 430 years passed between two verses, right?

Almost 99.999 percent of that 430 years was right in between those two verses in Exodus 1. Now, you're a Leviticus which is one month, one month in length. The entire book takes place with Israel at the base of Sinai, what did God have to give Israel when they were at the base of Sinai? Give me your attention. Come on, come on, come on.

What did God have to give Israel when they were at Sinai? What did he bring them to Sinai for? Why did he bring them there? It wasn't to say hi or anything or give them his autograph. Alberto?

The law. The law. He gets them to Sinai to give them the law. The book of Leviticus is a record of those 613 commands. I just want to tell you something.

You might not understand why I'm telling you this, and you might not think it's a big deal right now. If you will do what I'm about to say, it will solve a lot of your confusion associated with understanding God's law. How many laws did God give Israel? You might get tricked if you look up here. How many laws did God give Israel?

Ten. Ten? One. One. He gave them one law.

That law had how many commands in it? Six. Back there. Yes. 613.

613. You get the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments, which is a preview. Here's why I'm telling you this. People who are confused about the law often speak plurally and say the laws of God. You need to understand there is a law, so you look at it as a unit that goes together.

Whenever people get in trouble associated with understanding God's commands, it's because they're often talking about the law as though there's a whole bunch of them. There's not a whole bunch of laws and you can look through the entire Old Testament and much of the New Testament and see that it speaks singularly of the law of God and that law is like a constitution that had a bunch of commands or rules in it but God didn't give them a bunch of laws. If you understand that, then you'll view the law as one unit. It's like a window. If one of my children, let's say, threw a ball and went through that window and broke the corner of the window.

Would you say the window was broke or would you say only a tiny bit of the window was broke? You say the window is broke. That's the law. You don't get to break a little bit of it. You just break the law.

It doesn't matter if you keep 612 commands and only break one of them. You're a law breaker. Well, the reason that's important is there's many people who think of a whole bunch of different laws, and they pick and choose what they're going to keep. And I think it's James 210. It says, no, if you've done this wrong, you can't pick and choose.

If you're going to keep the law, you've got to keep the whole thing. It's not a buffet to choose what you like and don't like from it. Okay. I think that's pretty good. I don't want to get too much into What time is it?

Is that clock right or is that one? What time is it? Kelly? Okay. Well, I'll know not to watch that one.

That one looks a little slow back there. We'll pick up with Leviticus next week. I couldn't give you your homework yet because I didn't know how far we were going to get. I'll put your homework on the sermon page and send it out to the church. If you have any suggestions, if you felt like it was too much material or content for your children or you think we should sing first, you can send me your thoughts or suggestions.

I'm going to go ahead and close in prayer if there's no questions or anything. All right, let's pray. Father, I know this can seem like a lot of material. I pray you would give the children the mental, really the bank that they need for it. Open their hearts and their minds.

Deposit the truth of your word into it. Give them understanding. Reveal the timeline of Scripture to them. Help them to see these books in their mind's eye. I pray that they would understand what's happening through Genesis and through Exodus, Leviticus, because we want to know your son and he's revealed through these books.

We want to love him and serve him. Give these children here a deep love and faith in Christ. Make them disciples of his. I pray for each of these children that you've blessed us with here that you would just reach down into their hearts, Plant the seed of your word there, plant the gospel there. Give them a love for your word, a spiritual hunger and thirst for it, and an understanding for it.

And give us as fathers and mothers the discipline to teach our children the word of God. And give us wisdom to help them become disciples of Christ. Go with us now into the time of worship and we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.