Re: Verse reading–Exodus 14:1-4, 10-31; 15:1-2, 20-21 (day four) There are some things that we are responsible to do and some things that God takes responsibility to do. Verse 15-17 says, “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. 16 As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land. As for Me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen.” Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade had a definition for witnessing. “Successful witnessing is simply taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God.” Key for us is to know and do what we should be doing and letting God do what He is responsible for. He is glorified through our obedience and trust!
Tag: Israel
New Year’s Day
Re: Verse reading–Exodus 12:1-14, 24-27, 13:8-9 (day seven)
“This month is to be. . . the first month of your year.”–v 12:1.
How do you celebrate New Year’s Day? Football? Family? Fireworks? The Hebrews had a different tradition, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Began with Passover. They took a lamb (v 3), without defect (v 5–to accurately represent the coming, sinless Christ), cared for it in their homes for 14 days (v 6), then slaughtered, roasted and ate it with the family. Bitter herbs (v 8–to remind of sin and suffering) were also included and bread without yeast (unleavened, v 8–to remind of the speed and decisiveness required to be included in God’s plan– not even time for bread to rise). It told an important story! Life BEGAN for Israel when God made them free. So maybe New Year’s Day is not January 1. For believers, it is the day we received Christ by faith and forgiveness and power as a result. ” In Christ. . . new creation”–2 Corinthians 5:17. Please celebrate!
Substitute
Re: Verse reading–Exodus 12:1-14, 24-27, 13:8-9 (day one)
“When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”–12:13.
As The Great Artist, God drew this event into Israel’s history. It pointed to Christ. His death. The first participants, however, did not understand the future meaning. What they knew, that night as they sat huddled in their homes and heard the cries of a thousand Egyptian families mourning the death of a son in every house, was that THEY were safe. Not by their own merit, but by the death of an innocent substitute, a lamb. It was an unforgettable lesson! A debt paid. A death suffered. For them. By an innocent. Years later Israel would understand. John the Baptist would declare of Christ, “The LAMB OF GOD who takes away (both as to guilt and as to power) the sin of the world”–John 1:29. All that we have with God we owe to Christ, our substitute. We are “redeemed. . .with precious blood”–1 Peter 11:18-19
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.
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!
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?
Bitter, not bitter
Re: Verse reading–Exodus 1:8-22, 2:1-10 (day seven)
“They made their lives bitter. . . in all their hard labor, the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.”-v 14.
God comes to people in trouble. This is the gospel, the good news. Life is often not fair. People can be cruel. Know anyone who is bitter about life? Only God offers a way out. The book of Exodus is both history (Israel) and symbol (church) of God’s actions/principles that set people free from slavery and misery. Reading it, our eyes should see His offer of grace to us. THEY were slaves in Egypt. WE were slaves to sin. He sent THEM Moses. He sends US Christ. THEY wiped the blood of a lamb over their doors and were “passed over”. WE trust the blood of Christ on the cross and we are “passed over” as well. Make no mistake, this book is not only about Israel. It is about us and God’s promise to lead us out of bitterness.
Growing
Re: Verse reading–Exodus 1:8-22, 2:1-10 (day two) But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread…1:12
Some of us do our best work when we face a deadline or some kind of pressure to finish. There is some kind of inborn fire that ignites when our back is to the wall and we must either succeed or fail. It is interesting that we don’t always use the same zeal when it comes to our faith. Consider the Israelites, brought from starvation to plenty through Joseph’s position and the Lord’s provision, they were now a large people group that caused Egyptian leadership to worry. As a result they were forced into slavery, forced labor. From plenty to hardship within a few generation. But rather than fade into obscurity, the people of Israel thrived and grew. Oppression brought courage, faith, and growth. They were a still a long way from the promised land, and had much to endure before their journey’s end, but they did not allow hardship to overcome them. May the same be said of us.
Loyalty like His
Re: Verse reading–John 15:1-17 (day one)
“Abide in me as I abide in you”–v 4. It is a two-sided loyalty. He abides in us. Never leaves. Never abandons out of frustration from our doubts and resistance. He stays. He abides. And He commands a similar loyalty from us. We are to abide, remain, stay in Him. In season and out. When it is fun and when it isn’t. The result will be fruit and glory (see v 8). When the people of God stay with step with God, in union with Him the “Vine and Branch team” proves unbeatable. Is it possible for fickle hearts such as ours to do so? Apparently Jesus thought so. Everything else is just a sinful excuse or a stubborn refusal to answer love with love, loyalty with loyalty. “Whenever the cloud was lifted from over the tent. . .the sons of Israel would then set out”–Numbers 9:17. If he promises to stay with you, what do you promise?