Tag: God

Glory

Re: Verse reading–Exodus 5:1-2; 6:1-8; 7:1-5, 14-18; 8:1-3, 16, 20-21; 9:1-4, 8-9, 13-18, 25-26; 10:3-11, 21-22, 28-29; 11:1-5 (day six)

Exodus 8:9-10
Moses does something extraordinary. During the second plague Pharaoh pleads with him to go back and ask God to relent, in turn Moses says, “Tell me when. When do you want God to lift the plague?” Why would Moses do that? So that Pharaoh would know that there is no one like the God of Jacob.

The plagues were not an effort by God to convince Pharaoh to set the Hebrews free. God didn’t need plagues to do that. God had one purpose, to reveal his glory to the nations; the people of Egypt, the Hebrews, and countless others that would hear of the plagues. Everyone’s greatest need, including the Pharaoh, is to behold the glory of God. We are no different. Beholding the glory of God moves us from self-knowledge to desperation, from love to worship. In Pharaoh’s case, he would learn that there is no God like the God of Jacob; He alone builds and destroys nations.

God gave us his creation and His Word that we too might behold the glory of God. Do we? Do you?

Promises

Re: Verse reading–Exodus 5:1-2; 6:1-8; 7:1-5, 14-18; 8:1-3, 16, 20-21; 9:1-4, 8-9, 13-18, 25-26; 10:3-11, 21-22, 28-29; 11:1-5 (day five)

In the selected verses of Exodus 6, God makes several promises to His people through Moses.  (Hint:  look for “I Will” statements)  I will:  bring you out, deliver you, redeem you, take you for My people, be your God, bring you to the land, give it to you for a possession.

These promises indicate the great care, concern, strength, and power of the Lord.  Can you imagine someone in whom you completely trust and depend making those kinds of promises to you?  Maybe as a child or parent we have experienced or made promises that were not kept.  Sometimes we can become “promise calloused”.  Can you name any promises God has broken?  Will you praise God today for specific promises He has kept?

What are promises God has made that shape courage and hope in your heart?  (Look for “I Will” statements whenever you read the Scripture)

“True faith means holding nothing back. It means putting every hope in God’s fidelity to His Promises.”   – Francis Chan

Identity

Re: Verse reading–Exodus 5:1-2; 6:1-8; 7:1-5, 14-18; 8:1-3, 16, 20-21; 9:1-4, 8-9, 13-18, 25-26; 10:3-11, 21-22, 28-29; 11:1-5 (day three)

“I am the LORD.”  This little phrase of self-identification frames much of what God says to Moses at the outset of the confrontation with Pharaoh.  The question of identity was an important one to Pharaoh.  When Moses demanded freedom, Pharaoh wanted to know the identity of the one behind the demand.  Pharaoh placed no credence in the name of the LORD, but God’s repetition of his identity to Moses was more about shaping a people called by his name than introducing himself to Pharaoh.  Israel’s Egyptian masters resisted the LORD’s identity, and they would die by that name.  The LORD made short work of that.  The longer question was this: Would the children of Israel live by that name?  And so the question comes to us.

Stubbornness

Re: Verse reading–Exodus 5:1-2; 6:1-8; 7:1-5, 14-18; 8:1-3, 16, 20-21; 9:1-4, 8-9, 13-18, 25-26; 10:3-11, 21-22, 28-29; 11:1-5 (day two) 

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn; he refuses to let the people go.” 7:14

Several weeks ago I came across an internet meme which pictured a billboard which stated  “This year thousands of men will die of stubbornness.” Then, spray-painted just below this was a defiant response…“No we won’t.” The Pharaoh of the Exodus story could certainly relate to the graffiti on that billboard. Defiant and unyielding, he was willing to watch his people, the land, and the livestock suffer greatly rather than relent and show compassion, humility, or even a trace of humanity towards the Israelites. We can be instruments of God’s glory of objects of his wrath. What is he sending your way to get your attention? Do not let your own pride and stubbornness put you in the same category as the Pharaoh. Take off your sandals, find Holy Ground and yield to God’s great plan.

Small/huge step

Re: Verse reading–Exodus 5:1-2; 6:1-8; 7:1-5, 14-18; 8:1-3, 16, 20-21; 9:1-4, 8-9, 13-18, 25-26; 10:3-11, 21-22, 28-29; 11:1-5 (day one) 

“Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, . . . ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.’ “–5:1.

It was a HUGE mistake that surely seemed small to Pharaoh.  Just a SMALL matter compared to his normal pressures. But, it had a huge impact.  At first, Moses asked only permission for the Jews to go out in the desert to hold a religious festival.  Just a beginning. No great loss for Egypt.  Had Pharaoh, at this point, recognized their right to religious freedom, had he bent just slightly the Jews would still have left eventually, but without such cost to himself and his people.  Still true.  No step of obedience is small.  It will lead to more.  More obedience, more blessing.  No resistance to God’s will is small, either.  It hardens the heart and leads to judgment. Obedience may seem small, but it never is.

 

Identify

Re: Verse reading–Exodus 3:1-14; 4:1-15 (day six)
Who are you? Who are we? Exodus never lets us forget who these people are; they are the “people of Israel,” the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They had a tremendous sense of corporate identity; they were God’s people because of God’s covenant with their forefathers. Even when God moved in the life of an individual it was always in the greater context of a people. Abraham was the father of a nation, and Moses led a people out of slavery; the people were always in view.

Maybe one of the messages of the Exodus, and the people of God, is that we must regain a perspective of our corporate identity. We tend to be so individualistic that it is hard for us to break free and participate in our corporate identity. You see, we don’t do church; we are the church. We don’t go to church for worship; the church worships. We love and serve others not because it is something we are supposed to do, but because it is who we are in Jesus. We are the church, a chosen race, a holy priesthood, called to be the people of God in a very broken world. We are the Kingdom of God breaking into kingdom of the world.

I think that is what Jesus meant in John 17:22-23:

“The glory you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

Let’s be His church!

Agree/Disagree

Re: Verse reading–Exodus 3:1-14; 4:1-15  (day five)

God agrees with Moses’ self-assessment of his skills, abilities, and limitations.  If fact, God twice points to His own history of using flawed imperfect people to accomplish His purpose. (3:6 & 4:5- “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”)  We are likely to see these men as “Hall of Faith” members, in awe of their reputation and legacy.  The truth is, they each had significant issues, drama, dysfunction, and baggage. The stories of their lives could fill several soap opera time slots for years. Yet, He describes them in relation to Himself.  “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”.  God always sees the opportunities and potential of a flawed person with a genuinely humble heart and life that will trust Him.  He will disagree and challenge excuses and lack of trust in His strength and power.

Walking By Faith

Re: Verse reading–Exodus 3:1-14 (day four)
God had known Moses all of his life.  He had been working in his life, preparing Moses for his assignment.  Now, after 40 years or so, Moses is going to meet God.  He has known of Him, but now Moses will not only be introduced to Him, but also asked to respond in faith.  It was not such an easy task to walk by faith.  Moses had all kinds of questions…excuses why he should not obey God.  Moses was dangerously close to rejecting God completely.  God had a task for him though…Moses was to not only lead the Israelites out of Egypt, he was to introduce them to I AM.  Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is (I AM) and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”  By walking by faith, Moses gave an example to the children of Israel.  Who is following your example?

Action

Re: Verse reading–Exodus 3:1-14; 4:1-15  (day three)

“I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.”  If the universe had a beginning, something other than the universe must necessarily exist in order to have made that beginning possible.  And that “something other” must necessarily have the ability to decide to initiate the universe.  That ability is called will, which means the “something other” is a personal being.  If you’ll believe it, the Bible reveals the personal being is God.  There is nothing that inherently prevents the spiritual realm from continuing to interact with the physical realm.  God interacts with the world.  Regularly.  Moses saw it, paid attention, acted, led a people out of slavery, and built a nation from which came Jesus Christ.  God acts in history now.  The Bible tells you specifically how this goes.  So read.  Heed.  Act accordingly.

Still looking

Re: Verse reading–Exodus 3:1-14; 4:1-15 (day one)
“When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from the [burning] bush.”–v 4.

It is a common and crushing condition of the human heart.  We get so defeated, we stop looking for God, for answers.  We grow cynical, negative.  Past disappointments seem larger than future hope.  We aren’t even curious anymore.  In Exodus 3, Moses is man who has experienced significant disappointment.  Some of it self-inflicted.  Even so, he retains a hope that God is alive and active in the world.  When he sees a burning-but-not-consumed bush, he goes to investigate.  God honors this resilient hope, this curiosity and speaks to him.  What about you, friend?  Are you still looking for answers for yourself and your family and your nation?  Or, has your heart grown calloused and unbelieving?  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for”—Hebrews 11:1.  Did you wake today with hope?  Are you still looking for God?