January 26, read the Bible in a year in PowerPoint; commented.

John 17 is commonly known as Jesus’ high priestly prayer. In some conservative circles it is also called “The Lord’s prayer.” In it Jesus prayed for himself, then he prayed for his disciples followed by prayer for all future believers. In the end of the chapter he prayed that the believers will see his glory, the glory God gave him before the creation of the world.

A few hundred years has passed since the end of Genesis. Exodus 1 tells how the Hebrews multiplied and became a perceived threat to the Egyptians. The Egyptians told the Hebrew midwives that every boy they delivered must be thrown into the Nile, but every girl were to be let to live.

Which seamlessly leads into Exodus 2, how Moses when he was born was placed in a papyrus basket, which then was thrown into the Nile and the child was left crying in the reeds. Pharaoh’s daughter heard it, picked him up and asked her servant to find somebody to nurse him. Of course she found Moses’ own mother to nurse him. After he was weaned Moses grew up in Pharaoh’s household and got educated. He did remember he was a Hebrew, so when he saw an Egyptian mistreat a Hebrew he killed the Egyptian. This became known and Moses fled to Midian, where he spent 40 years tending flocks. This is great reading.

The take home from today’s reading is that Jesus clearly indicated he existed in his full glory before the creation of the world. And according to Genesis 1:2 the Spirit of God took part in creation. The triune God clearly existed before creation.

Now about Moses birth the edict was that every Hebrew boy should die, but every girl should live. This is opposite but similar to the Chinese one child policy. When I became a citizen I was invited to a special ceremony of naturalization where it was only one or a couple from as many countries they could find. We were 135 people from 78 countries. The only exception were 5 adopted Chinese girls, the result of the one child policy. With only one child allowed he better be a boy. Girls were usually aborted, but some parents chose the difficult and expensive process of giving it up for adoption. China is now paying the price for their catastrophic policies.