The Everyday Prayer

Re: Verse reading–Numbers 13:26-33; 14:1-9 (day three)

“Our wives and children will be taken as plunder.”  You trust fear.  You know fear.  Fear’s been around your whole life, working to keep you safe, affirming what you’ve suspected all along.  It keeps you away from risk, away from putting your mind to the hard task of solving problems, away from people calling for your help with troubling questions, away from the misery of those who need a word of hope or encouragement or warning.  Courage, well, that’s a different story.  Courage is a newcomer, spouting off new ways of thinking about the future.  By thinking in those new ways, consider all you have to lose, fear tells you.  Why do you think fear never tells you what you have to gain by staying afraid?

Re: Verse reading–Numbers 13:26-33; 14:1-9 (day two)

“Their protection has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” 4:19b

In what would foreshadow Joshua’s first sermon to the people of Israel forty years later, Joshua pleads for his comrades to be strong and courageous.  Joshua 1:6. The Israelites could not see past their own understanding of the world. They had left the oppression of the Egyptians and followed the Lord’s command through the Red Sea, but they could not fathom how the God who did all that could possibly defeat this new foe. Do you do that? Do you limit our Sovereign God’s ability to move any mountain, part any water, or vanquish any foe because of your small understanding of his power? When will we stop measuring God’s power by our earthly yardstick? If God has brought you to it, he’ll bring you through it.

Re: Verse reading–Numbers 13:26-33; 14:1-9 (day one)

“Our wives and children will be taken as plunder.  Wouldn’t it be better to go back to Egypt?”–14:3

It was a sad day.  A permanent regret.  God had prepared them.  Proved Himself at the Red Sea crossing, provided for them in daily manna.  Then, irrational fear took over.  At the first mention of powerful opponents and fortified cities and giant warriors, the people panicked!  No reference to a faithful, powerful God.  Wildfire anxiety!  Before long, they were imagining disaster and considering a return to Egypt!

At some point, fear becomes a choice.  “Let not your heart be troubled” says the Lord.  If fear is ruling my life, at some level I am allowing it.

Sad day for them.  Costly failure.  Doesn’t have to be so for us.  “TRUST in the LORD with all your heart!  Lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him and He will direct your paths.”–Proverbs 3:4-5.

RE Verse reading–Exodus 3:7-15; 4:1-17 (day seven)

“When God saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush.”–3:4

It isn’t really a virtue, but almost.  Curiosity.  Interest.  Hunger for something that you haven’t yet found. The ability to dream again despite all disappointments.

The Bible says that God watched for it in Moses. Waited to see what he (Moses) would choose.

Maybe he was tempted to just walk on by.  Once burned, twice shy.   Why does it matter? Life is over for me anyway.  Or, maybe he identified with the bush.  Saw his own story in it. In the fire, but not destroyed.  Resilient.  Humbled but still hopeful.

Henry Blackaby talks about the “crisis of belief”.  That moment when what you thought would happen didn’t.  The answer you thought would come doesn’t.  What then?  Will you survive that moment?  Will your faith?

After all the bumps and delays, are you still curious?

Re: Verse reading–Exodus 3:7-15, 4:1-17 (day five) Exodus 4:11- The Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? ¹² Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say.”

Scripture always holds two things together (God’s act of creation and His sovereign providence). Some theologians believe in “Deism”. It’s a theological view separates them. In other words, they believe that God created the universe and everything in it. Then, He withdraws like an absentee landlord to allow the world to run its own course.

You can’t read the Bible very long without coming to a very different conclusion: Jesus’ answer to the disciples in John 9:3, Romans 8:28, and God’s response to Moses. God reassures Moses of His power, provision, and presence. (all-together and at the same time) He is not distant or removed from any circumstance or issue we encounter. He makes the same promises to us today, and that is really good news.

 

Re: Verse reading–Exodus 3:7-15, 4:1-17 (day four) 

Question:  Is faith greater than fear?  If your answer is yes…at what point did Moses place his faith in God?  In our Re:Verse passage this week, Moses is afraid of the assignment God has given him.  Moses comes up with every excuse he can think of to try to get God to choose someone else for this task of delivering the children of Israel.  If we go to Hebrews 11, we find that Moses demonstrated faith when he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.  He also had faith when he left Egypt, not fearing the king, trusting in the unseen one.  It was on the mountain of God that Moses began to know and understand the God he had placed his faith in.  He was afraid of the responsibility of being the deliverer of Israel, but his faith in God who promised to be with him overcame his fear.

Question: Is your faith greater than your fear?  When God gives an assignment, He promises to be with us.  Have no fear!

Re: Verse reading–Exodus 3:7-15, 4:1-17 (day three) 

“Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses.”  God’s anger is never an end in itself.  Rather, his anger always moves creation towards what he desires.  It burns away impurity, it renews, it opens up a new possibility of life in the face of the present circumstances for those who will come to their senses.  God’s anger toward Moses opened up the possibility for Aaron to join this enterprise, and as a result, Moses did not run away.  He accepted his assignment from God.  And the rest is holy history.  Face it: God gets angry with you.  He does.  Maybe he’s angry now.  But that’s not the end.  It’s just the beginning of his moving you to a new life of confident action if you won’t run away.

Re: Verse reading–Exodus 3:7-15, 4:1-17 (day two) The Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 4:11

Best not to argue with the Lord. Do we really believe that if we are called by the Lord, that he hasn’t thought of how to use us to accomplish the task? In this instance the Lord provides Moses’ brother Aaron to aid in the plan to free the Israelites, the scripture also says that God’s anger “burned against Moses.” 4:14 Are we so proud, fearful, or untrusting that we would risk God’s anger?

Queen Esther faced a similar moment in her call to action. Her Uncle Mordecai reminded her that the Lord would indeed free his people whether she accepted the assignment or not. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews WILL ARISE FROM ANOTHER PLACE…Esther 4:14a

Get on board. Stop making excuses. If he has clearly called you out to be a part of his kingdom building then roll up your sleeves, grab that staff, and march into Pharaoh’s  court.

Re: Verse reading–Exodus 3:7-15, 4:1-17 (day one) 

“But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ “–3:11

Familiar place for me.  Insecurity.  Inadequacy.  “I can’t do that.”  “I don’t know how.”  I know these words all too well.

A few years before, Moses probably wouldn’t have verbalized self-doubt.  He was brash and self-confident.  Then, life collapsed.  A very public fall from grace and a criminal record and the loss of all he had.  Forty years in the desert at a blue collar job had done its job.  He learned humility.

Confidence is the second lesson of the spiritual life.  (Humility is always the first) Once God teaches us to say, “I can’t” (in my own strength), He teaches us to say, “I can” (if God will be with me).

It is a turning point.  For Moses.  For us.  “I CAN do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”–Philippians 4:13.