C.A.C Sunday School Manual For February 21 & 28, 2021, Lesson Three : Topic – God in Administration of Egypt

By | February 27, 2021

C.A.C Sunday School Manual For February 21 & 28, 2021, Lesson Three : Topic – God in Administration of Egypt

Read previous CAC Sunday School Manuals here

CHRIST APOSTOLIC CHURCH WORLDWIDE

SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON (KINGDOM OF GOD FAMILY)
JANUARY – JUNE 2021
UNIT ONE : Gentile Administration Before the Exile
Date : February 21 & 28, 2021
Lesson : THREE
TOPIC: GOD IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF EGYPT
God used Moses and Aaron to prove His supremacy over all governments, secular and spiritual, Jewish and Gentile, to Pharaoh. He who does not know God jokes with Him and His things.
Memory Scripture
He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth
(Psalms 105:7).
BRIEF COMMENT
 
He is the LORD our God; His judgment are in all the earth is particularly referring to God Almighty, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. No idol is capable to be ascribed with this kind of statement because none can match the Lord God of Israel in glory, honour and power, He is the Lord our God (Deut. 6:4). God is not dual and must not be pluralised in any form. He is imcomparable with anything, or anyone in heaven and on earth. None of the gods of the land where they were coming from could match God, who is sovereign. This Psalmist intended, like Moses, to make the people of God know the oneness, greatness and faithfulness of Yahweh who does wonders and administers the affairs of the whole earth. He intended also to assist the people to acknowledge and peraonalise God… our God. Also, He toed the same path with the blessedness that accompanies making God one’s Lord (Psa. 33:12).
His judgments are in all the earth refers to the limitlessness of God in terms of His administration, leadership, control, justice, intervention interjection and interception in the affairs of the whole universe. God is so majestic His deeds are too wonderful and innumerable, and they are witness everywhere at all times.
The implication: Is God, through Jesus Christ, your Lord? Nothing can be blessed than when the God of heaven and earth is your Lord. Make Him your Lord in all ramifications, today. To some people, Jesus is only their Saviour, and not Lord. This is not all that He is. Make Him your Saviour and Lord today, and reap the wonderful blessings that accompany talking taking that decision.
Devotional Bible Reading For Week One
Mon. 15: God Sends Joseph Ahead (Psa. 105:17-22)
Tue. 16: God Uses Joseph To Save Many (Gen. 45:5-14)
Wed. 17: God Leads Israel To Egypt (Gen. 46:1-27)
Thur. 18: God Uses Pharaoh To Accomodate Israel (Gen. 47:1-12)
Fri. 19: God’s Programme Reaffirmed By Joseph (Gen. 50:22-26)
Sat. 20: God Makes His People Prosperous (Exo. 1:1-8)
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS
1. The sovereign Lord who controls and manages all things decisively showed up in Egypt to fight part of His eternal redemptive programme.
2. God who cannot be limited or tamed revealed His power in Egypt and proclaimed His glorious Name by bringing in His own people and establishing them until they became a mighty and unstoppable nation. You have to be ready for God’s manifestation through, and in you.
BACKGROUND SCRIPTURES: Psalm 105:13-38
AIM AND OBJECTIVES
AIM: To reveal God as One who is limitless, powerful, and reigns supreme over all the nations of the earth, whether invited or not.
OBJECTIVES: At the end of this two weeks lesson, readers are expected to be able to:
i. meaningfully defend the fact that the Sovereign Lord has unlimited and unimaginable span of control in both heaven and earth;
ii. show from how God promoted an innocent Hebrew boy to show His supremacy;
iii. show from how God confounded Pharaoh’s wicked maternity policy that He intervenes and interjects in any government of the world unstoppably; and
iv. prove God’s power to crush even the most wicked of all tyrants, as exemplified in the way He dealt with Pharaoh’s stubbornness.
INTRODUCTION
TEXT SOURCE: GENESIS 37:1-35; 39:1-21; 41:1-46; EXODUS 1-4
We give all glory and honour to the Ancient of Days, the Governor of heavens and the earth, for His glorious and unequivocal dealings with us as His people. Hallelujah! Our God has chosen to reveal Himself to us in another dimension. He has since the beginning of this Sunday school series begun to show Himself to us as the Administrator of heaven and the earth. It is clearer now that there is no throne, kingdom or seat that exists without the knowledge of God. In fact, God causes everything that exists to be.
Previously, we have studied ALL SOULS BELONG TO GOD and GOD DEFENDS THE RIGHTS OF BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES as the first and second lessons of the series. This week, we shall be considering GOD IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF EGYPT, which highlights the awesome performance of God in the land of Egypt in fulfillment of His Word in Genesis 15. The progressive, omniscient God, the Master Planner, had known beforehand that He would visit the land of Egypt and make Himself known to the whole world. And to get the done, He needed the cooperation of Israel, a people He had chosen to bear His name and praise. When the time finally came for God to manifest Himself as the One on the throne, ruling and not Pharaoh, He just made use of only two characters — Joseph and Moses. He exalted Joseph in the sight of Pharaoh and eventually made Moses lord to Pharaoh. He assisted Moses to bring His enslaved people out of Egypt contrary to Pharaoh’s devilish desire.
What a glorious and awesome God we have! This is the focus of this two-week lesson. May the Holy Spirit help us to fully take the teachings of this powerful lesson and begin to see God greater than we have always thought of Him, since we cannot see and understand Him more than the revelation about Himself that He decides to give to us.
INTRODUCTION TO EACH DIVISION
This lesson is a two-week lesson, which is divided into I and II, with each further divided into A and B, respectively.
DIVISION I: PLANTS JOSEPH PURPOSEFULLY
This section, is precipitated upon how God laid hands on Joseph and used him to fulfill His divine purpose in the land of Egypt. How could a Hebrew boy rise in faraway Egypt to become a ruler who helped the mighty Pharaoh to manage his domain and save his own people from the disaster that could have wasted every life? God is the brain behind it. Two major issues were raised: how God led Joseph to Egypt, and how God led him into the Egyptian administration of that time.
DIVISION II: PLANTS MOSES STRATEGICALLY
In this section, the focus is shifted to how God raised and used Moses mightily in the land of Egypt to bring our His Poeple from the enslavement of the wicked Pharaoh. It should be noted that the time frame between the issues raised in divisions I and II are different from each other. The Pharoah of Joseph’s time was different from that of Moses’ days. God dealt with the wicked Pharaoh during the time of Moses; thwarted his homicide mission over Moses and eventually finished him up in the Red Sea. Moses rose to the position of leadership among the Lord’s people and led them out of Pharaoh’s domain with God’s might hands.
LESSON OUTLINE
I. PLANTS JOSEPH PURPOSEFULLY
A. LEADS HIM TO EGYPT
B. LEADS HIM TO EGYPTIANS ADMINISTRATION
II. PLANTS MOSES STRATEGICALLY
A. CONFOUNDS PHARAOH’S WICKED MATERNITY POLICY
B. CRUSHES PHARAOH’S STUBBORNNESS
LESSON EXPOSITION
I. PLANTS JOSEPH PURPOSEFULLY (Genesis 37:1-41:57)
 
God is purposive and powerful. He knows what He is doing, why He is doing it, and how to do it unfailingly. No wonder the reason for planting Joseph was divinely and systematically orchestrated. Even the mighty Pharaoh could not scuttle it. God’s purpose for you is being fulfilled in Jesus’ name.
A. LEADS HIM TO EGYPT (37:1-35; 39:1-21)
Then Middianite traders passed by; so he brothers pulled Joseph and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt (37:28).
i. God controls every event on earth; He is directly in charge of all affairs of man. Also, whatever comes out of His mouth would not go unfulfilled (Matt. 5:18), hence the fulfillment of Genesis 15:13,14, in line with His eternal redemptive purpose.
ii. 37:1-11: Were all those dreams for frivolities? Not at all. They were God-given, so that the boy would begin to know about the extraordinary plan of God, not just for him but God’s own eternal purpose.
iii. vv. 12-14: To fulfill this purpose, God moved Joseph’s earthly father to send him, unsuspectingly, on an errand that eventually led him to Egypt.
iv. The boy wasn’t going to Egypt on his own accord, or to fulfill his own programme, but God’s which is paramount and demands everyone to cooperate with God for its fulfillment.
v. vv. 15-35: Apart from the boy’s father, God used many other agents to lead him into Egypt — His brothers, the Midianite traders, who first bought him, and Potipher. In every situation, man needs to heed God’s call, no matter the seriousness of the seemingly difficult things ahead.
vi. 39:1-5,21: To show that God was the Controller of Joseph’s movement, it became obvious that God was with him everywhere, including Potipher’s house and the prison.
vii. The all-powerful God, who works without permission from anyone guided the destiny-bound Joseph away from home and led him into where he wanted to use him for His glory. God does not start a journey only to stop half way with anyone. Yours will not be exceptional, provided you continue to cooperate with Him.
B. LEADS HIM TO EGYPTIAN ADMINISTRATION (39:7 41:1-46)
You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you… (41:40).
i. 39:7-20: God masterminds all situations in line with His purpose. In fulfillment of this, He allowed the situations that took Joseph away from Potipher’s house to the palace. That Potipher’s wife wanted to rape a mere Hebrew slave boy shows God at the background. His will cannot be opposed.
ii. vv. 21-23: In the prison, God continued to prove His sovereignty; made Joseph a sought-after for everyone, co-prisoners and prison officials, alike.
iii. 40:1-22: With God’s help, he interpreted correctly those God-given dreams of Pharaoh’s butler and ageless God manages all things, including time. Contrary to Joseph’s anticipation (v. 14), the butler, who was fortunate among the two, forgot Joseph in prison. He couldn’t have acted otherwise. Why? God’s timing (cf. Psa. 75:6).
v. 41:1-15: Here, we see the timeless of God’s purpose. It couldn’t have been faster or slower. At the right time, …the end of two full years, He visited Pharaoh with dreadful, irresistible dream, which defied the knowledge and wisdom of Pharaoh and everyone in his cabinet. Who or what is it that God is not beyond?
vi. v. 16: God will give Pharaoh an interpretation. God assisted Joseph not to shift his focus from Him (Heb. 12:2). No wonder his success and achievement in Egypt! How cooperative are you with God to show His praise and fulfill His purpose?
vii. 41:37-46: You shall be over my house… God assisted Pharaoh to acknowledge and give Him room in his administration. This is indicated by how he publicly pronounced Joseph ruler when he accurately interpreted the dream. A clarion call to those who have not given their lives to Jesus.
viii.God who assisted the innocent young Joseph to be fulfilled in life, as He led him purposively into the administration of Pharaoh, effortlessly, is to take you to His plan destiny for your life without any failure. He never disappoint anyone who connect with Him.
LESSONS DERIVED
1. God is in charge of all things in heaven and on earth, and moves all things specifically for His glorious purpose.
2. All thrones are under God’s administration, He directs their affairs as He deems fit.
WORK TO DO
 
What would happened in Egypt without the God-given dream (to a gentile) and a divinely provided interpreter?
SUGGESTED ANSWER TO WORK TO DO
 
i. This situation would have been pathetic because no one would have survived it, Jews and Gentiles alike.
ii. The famine that was averted by God through the dream He gave to Pharaoh that was perfectly interpreted and managed by God using Joseph would have resulted in the end of several lives worldwide with ripple effects.
iii. Thanks to our good and benevolent God for His timely intervention. He who had the pre-knowledge of all things, and predicts the end from the beginning managed the famine and mitigated its damaging effects, such that lives were preserved to His glory.
iv. Above all, the Egyptians and their Pharaoh acknowledged God as supreme and sovereign through Joseph’s ministry, and honoured God by allowing His people in their land (Gen. 41:37-45; 47:1-12).
Lessons to learn:
i. Nothing catches God unawares. He knew and allowed the famine in the first place. He could have withheld it, but He chose to make it happen for His glorious purpose (Psa. 105:16).
ii. God has ready-made solution to all problems and circumstances.
iii. Purposely for His glory and honour, God can cause anything to happen; no one questions or queries Him.
iv. The best thing to do when God is about to take glory for Himself using any medium is to cooperate with Him and allow Him to make use of us.
v. When we cooperate with God, we reap the benefits of being on His side. However, those who don’t always pay dearly for their noncompliance.
vi. You can avert any injury or accident in your life if you always yield to the Holy Spirit’s instructions. Receive the grace to do just that, in Jesus’ name.
II. PLANTS MOSES STRATEGICALLY (Exodus 1:14)
February 28th, 2021
Strategy is a military term used in advancing their defence course. God is the mighty Warrior, mighty Man in battle. Because He had some battles to make against a reigning king who chose to recalcitrantly be His enemy, and of His people, God strategically prepared a warlord in Moses, raised in the palace of His enemy, unsuspectingly, and later unleashed on His self-made enemy, Pharaoh. What a powerful strategy that was! CONFOUND PHARAOH’S WICKED MATERNITY POLICY (1:6 3:1ff)
But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive (1:17).
i. God’s purpose are fulfilled in stages. The time came for the nascent nation of Israel to be birthed from Egypt, fulfilling Scriptures (Gen. 15:13,14; Psa. 105:7-10; cf. Hos. 11:1).
ii. 1:6-14: The boom in population that Israel experienced in Egypt is a demonstration of God’s favour and faithfulness to His Word. This did not only arouse the jealousy of the new Pharoah, but caused him to undertake wicked plots against them. This is also God in action (Psa. 105:23-25).
iii. vv. 15-22: Pharaoh’s decision to terminate the life of those Hebrew male children, Moses’ inclusive, was aborted by Yahweh who emboldened the midwives to defy the cruel king’s order. Plans against God’s purpose always fail.
iv. 2:1-10: God monitored how Moses was discovered and adopted by Pharaoh’s own daughter, who brought him up in the very palace of Pharaoh who had made himself an enemy of of God and His people.
v. 2:11; 3:1ff: Still part of God’s arrangement, when the time came for Moses to discover God’s purpose for His life and God’s people, God moved him out of Egypt.
vi. What the wicked Pharaoh feared that made him commit such a great crime against humanity eventually befell him as the deliverer he did not want was raised right in his palace, under nostrils. What a mighty strategist our God is!
B. CRUSHES PHARAOH’S STUBBORNNESS (2:16; 14:30)
Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained (14:28).
i. 2:16-25: God’s programme can never fail. The only authority in heaven, and earth continued to monitor and direct the steps of Moses and did everything possible to prepare him for the big assignment.
ii. Chaps 3:4: When the time for God to show His supremacy and fulfill His purpose over Pharaoh came, He called, convinced and commissioned His well-prepared servant and sent him back to Egypt.
iii. 11:9: God did so many wonders and signs through Moses to show the obstinate king that He is the only living God, Yahweh, So that His wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt (chaps 5-10). Why then did Pharaoh not acknowledge God?
iv. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart (7:13,22; 8:15,19,32; 9:7,12,35; 10:22,27; 11:9-10). In spite of all those terrible confounding plagues, Pharaoh (9:17). Have you discovered why you are made?
v. 11:1-10: God eventually made Pharaoh to realise his mistakes of failing to acknowledge Him, when the destructive angel He sent wreaked havoc on Egyptian firstborns, including Pharaoh’s. Don’t wait till tomorrow to acknowledge God as absolutely sovereign. It might be too late.
vi. 14:1-30: Then I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, …and I will gain honour… (v. 4). God hardened Pharaoh’s heart till he undid himself. Even when he allowed the people to go, God still made him to change his mind so that he could be finished. No one has ever escaped God’s arm.
vii. Before Pharaoh could realise he was fighting a battle he had lost, it was too late for him. No one has prevailed and would ever prevail against God, no matter the situation and how hard he/she tries. So, if you are on His side, you are indomitable.
LESSONS DERIVED
1. God always shows His supremacy over and above all things or persons, whether man acknowledged it or not. The programme that Pharaoh opposed was eventually run in his palace.
2. God’s purpose cannot be aborted. Anyone who chooses to obey God would be used by Him. Whosoever chooses to destroy God’s programme would end up destroying himself.
QUESTIONS
1. How did God show Himself in the administration of Egypt?
2. Explain the reason God had to take such drastic and noticeable steps in the land of Egypt. Any practical lesson for us, today?
SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
ANSWER TO QUESTION I
i. First and foremost, the Omnipresent God is everywhere at the same time. He was already in Egypt before He decided to manifest His power to the pagans.
ii. However, when He finally decided to show Himself, He worked through some human agents: Joseph, Potiphar, His wife, Joseph’s brother, Pharaoh’s butler, and Pharoah himself, Moses, and many others.
iii. He led Jeseph to Egypt ahead of the other members of his family, without any interruption (Psa. 105:17-22).
iv. He used the adulterous and wicked wife of Joseph’s lord to launch him into the prison where an encounter with the king’s butler would lead him to Pharaoh (Gen. 39:6-18; Psa. 105:19-22).
v. Joseph cooperated with God all along; he eventually interpreted the king’s dream, and became a prominent member of Pharaoh’s cabinet to manage the resources in the land, in preparation for the worldwide food scarcity (Gen. 41:17ff).
vi. God moved Pharaoh’s heart, so that he had no reason to oppose the wise counsel of Joseph, God’s accredited vessel.
vii. Israel eventually moved into Egypt in fulfillment of His Word to Abraham. The presence of Joseph and the Israelites meant the presence of God in the land of Egypt (Ps. 105:23, Gen. 15:12-20).
viii.When the time came for Israel to jet out of Egypt after fulfilling the 400-years prophesied stay, God raised for Himself, a man, Moses, who became the leader of God’s people and was instrumental to their exodus from the den of the wicked Pharaoh (Psa. 105:26).
ix. Eventually, after clear and unmistakable manifestation of God’s mighty Arm that culminated in the nationwide death of the Egyptian firstborns, Israel was let go, with God leading them through the Red Sea while closing up the Sea on the haughty Pharaoh and his charioteers who failed to acknowledge God (Exo. 7:14; Psa. 105:27-36).
x. When God decides to show Himself anywhere, at any time, He can decide to pick on anyone without permission. Always be available for His use according to His will.
ANSWER TO QUESTION 2
The reasons God had to take those steps in Egypt include:
i. Fulfillment of His eternal redemptive plan.
ii. He does what He says. God does not falter. He takes no permission from anyone to act.
iii. He has His Name to protect and His people to preserve. His faithfulness is forever.
iv. He will do everything to the glory and honour of Himself. He knows what is good for His children and that He is committed to. The greatest, betterment and blessedness of His people is His concern.
v. He would move for the destruction of the ungodly, reprobate and finally impenitent, no matter what.
vi. God does not share His glory with anyone (Isa. 42:8), and anyone who tries to impede Him from taking His glory would be wasted at the end.
Lessons to learn:
i. We must cooperate with God to bring His will, Word and purpose to fulfilment in our lives, land, and lives of others.
ii. Anyone must not try to oppose God or His programme? To do so usually breeds trouble.
LIFE APPLICATION
 
Action points:
* Cooperate totally with God, so that He may work out His glorious and eternal purpose in, and through you.
* Don’t be a clog in the wheel of God’s programmes. He has zero tolerance for anyone who does otherwise.
* All you have to do is, be available for, and to Him, and resolve to bring Him glory in your life.
* Be a genuine friend of His, people and programme.
* God has never, and would never abdicate His throne as God of the universe, for anyone to replace Him.
* Pattern your life after the fulfilment of God’s Word, will, purpose and programme.
* In case you have been running parallel to God and His things, you are employed to repent today before it is too late, because the consequence is unbearable.
CONCLUSION
This is the end of the third lesson in this series. The good Lord has chosen to bless us by making us to see how magnificent and marvellous He is, through His mighty deeds in Egypt. God, the Authority in heaven and on earth, who worked in Egypt several years ago, uninvited, remains the same today and forever — unchangeable Changer. Cooperate with Him now, just as the Pharaoh who reigned during Joseph’s time did, and you will ever see His goodness in the land of the living.
DEVOTIONAL BIBLE READINGS FOR WEEK TWO
Mon. 22: God Makes Moses Pharaoh’s God (Exo. 7:1-7)
Tue. 23: God’s Sign And Wonder Counterfeit (Exo. 7:8-13)
Wed. 24: God Turns Water To Blood (Exo. 7:14-25)
Thur. 25: God Brings Forth Frogs And Insects (Exo. 8:1-24)
Fri. 26: God Continues Plaguing The Stubborn Egyptians (Exo. 9:1-25)
Sat. 27: Great Locusts And Darkness In Egypt (Exo. 10:1-25)

Leave a Reply