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Exodus 19:4 “‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.”
SETTLE your mind for a moment and consider God’s words, “how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” Who formed the union between God and his people? Of course, it is the LORD God. In his grace, he planned to create a people he would bring to himself. His power would form and sustain them, so they would be his people. This grace is, indeed, amazing. This is God’s way. Let’s remember another union God graciously formed long before Israel. We know God created man. Then there was one more thing to do to complete his creation. With love and mercy God looked upon Adam to say, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." (Genesis 2:18) Lovingly, God created a woman. And he did so not with just a spoken word, but out of Adam’s rib. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.” (Genesis 2:22) See how he brought them together to form a perfect, complete union. This is the power of God. What was next for Adam & Eve? You could say God brought to the first marriage a purpose. Obeying his commands, they would “rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” (Genesis 1:26) Do you see the pattern? God creates. He brings his creation to himself. He gives his creation a purpose to be his ambassadors on earth to give praise to his name. In that same manner, then, God created Israel. He brought the people to himself. He set them apart out of the world, then out of Egypt. He gave them a purpose to bless the world as they obeyed God’s commands. This was their mission. Ultimately the Jews would bless the world. Through his nation, our Father in heaven brought his Savior to the earth. He graciously gave his one and only son that whoever will believe in him will be saved. (John 3:16) The Father and the Son then brought the Holy Spirit into the world. Through the Spirit today, the LORD God brings you to himself as, “the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” (John 3:6b) He forms with you and the church a holy relationship. By his grace, he has done this to create you as his own. He blesses you with new life to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Mathew 28:19). Now it’s your time to be his ambassadors. With God’s power you are to bless the world. You get to be God’s voice to help bring people to him. LIFE Link: Are you with God? Praise him. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will. (Ephesians 1:4-5) Exodus 18:14 “What are you really accomplishing here? Why are you trying to do all this alone while everyone stands around you from morning till evening?”
SOMETIMES our tasks in life are overwhelming. We’ve all experienced times of too much to do and no time to do it. Whether they are God-directed tasks or responsibilities of our daily lives, we become overwhelmed. But take heart. God has ways to help you with your work. In this story from so long ago, we see how Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, helped Moses learn about sharing responsibility. Moses was overwhelmed with dozens, even hundreds of people coming to him daily. He was the judge and jury to hear problems and resolve them. There was far too much for one man to do. Jethro gave Moses a plan. Moses listened and learned. He began to become more the leader God called him to be. He had time to effectively work and time to rest. If you are overwhelmed with tasks in your household, workplace, at church or other volunteer work, seek help. Put away the pride that says, “Only I can do this.” Be humble to ask others, “Would you like to help?” God doesn’t want you to wear down. He wants you to wear the crown of gladness as you work and to rest with him. Trust God to send you good help. Get some rest and enjoy your work. LIFE Link: You’re not the only one who can do “it”. Exodus 17:1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.
THE fact the Israelites traveled from “place to place as the Lord commanded” and then they came to Rephidim, where “there was no water for the people to drink.” might cause you wonder. Wouldn’t God know there was no water for his nation at Rephidim? Is God a poor leader or what? “Or what?” indeed. What happened? Out of a rock at Rephidim came streams of water. Read further, and you will see how Israel defeats the Amalekites as they faithfully obey their God. Scarce water and enemy attacks are two realities of the Jews’ journey to the Promised Land as the LORD God continues to turn their minds to know him. One way God visible shows himself is Moses’ Spirit-powered staff. This was the staff Moses had when he first encountered God in Genesis 3. It was the staff God used to display his authority to Moses, the Jews’ leaders and to Pharaoh. Now Moses’ staff strikes the rock. He lifts the high to strengthen his troops. (See Exodus 17:8-14.) Human nature demands evidence that God is real and all-powerful over our lives. Exodus has revealed the LORD repeatedly took his people into places of suffering - slavery, thirst, hunger and war – so they would know His power was the difference between life and death. Now consider this. Centuries from this time, God would use another piece of would to demonstrate his saving power. The Father put into the hands of his Son, Jesus, a wooden cross to raise high and declare: John 7:38 “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." To affirm John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” These past few lessons have focused on God testing Israel. We need to know how to trust God in his test and in Satan’s temptations. We must understand the opportunities God gives to us to declare, “You are my Lord and King. You are my Savior. I will trust in you.” LIFE Link: God leads you sometimes to pain, so that you will rejoice in his power. Exodus 16:8 Moses continued, “The LORD will give you meat to eat this evening and abundant bread in the morning, for he has heard the complaints that you are raising against him. Who are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the LORD.”
ABOUT a month out of Egypt, God directed his people into the desert. Food, of course, is very scarce for about 1 million people. In Exodus 15, you will read of how God miraculously give them water. Now they are hungry. Israel, then, instead of trusting God’s provision, blamed Moses and Aaron: Exodus 16:3 “If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” Moses’ response was, “Your complaints are not against us but against the LORD.” Some might see Moses as shifting the blame away from himself. We think this way because blame is our sinful mindset. Even in our own mistakes or sins, we point to others and say, “It’s your fault.” How quickly, too, do we point to God in hard times to say, “These troubles are your fault!, God.” Moses is not blaming God, but he is glorifying God. God’s chosen leader is directing the Jews to know God has full authority over all things. “Who are we?” Moses said in submission to God’s power is Moses saying, “The LORD God is sovereign to do his will among.” This is a vital understanding in Israel’s formation as a nation. Only when they understand that they are his people will they obey his authority. They must trust he will care for their needs as they obey his commands, even those that direct them into the desert. This is essential for each of us, isn’t it? We can never be sure of our salvation until we accept God’s full authority over our souls. Knowing God’s full power, we turn from blame to the faithful prayer, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10) We praise him for his care over us and glorify his name because his is the kingdom and the power and glory forever. Now think of this: if Moses had taken the blame, he might have received the credit when God delivered the daily manna to the Jews. Moses is telling the people, “Seek God. Petition him for your needs. He is the only one who can fill your stomachs.” God’s relationship with you is always moving, always growing if you trust him. Psalms 23:4-5 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. He’s given you his Word. He’s given to you himself. Believe this and live in faith.. LIFE Link: God always wants you to always seek him first. Exodus 15:1-2, 17-18Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: “I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea. 2 The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him”…17 “You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance - the place, O Lord, you made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, your hands established. 18 The Lord will reign forever and ever.”
GOD’s people had experienced a great deliverance from Egypt’s slavery. Then the LORD God saved them from Egypt’s certain re-capture and death on the Red Sea’s shore. God’s 400-year-old promises to Jacob had come true! Genesis 35:11 “I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body. And how did God’s nation respond? They did what was good and right in God’s sight – what was righteous. Israel worshiped. Exodus 15:1-20 records how they sang the Song of Moses. Then we read Moses’ sister Miriam’s praise song in Exodus 15:21. But (And there’s always a “but”, isn’t there?) read on in Exodus 15, and you will see God’s people need water. What is their response? The singing stopped. Their complaints began. Exodus 15:24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” Faith one day turns to fear and frustration the next day. How quickly they forgot God’s miraculous power. They did not remember what God had done. Righteous worship became wrongful blame. “Moses, God, what are you doing?” How would you answer their question? Would you tell them to drink of God’s power and love? Would you encourage them to continue to praise God, to call on his name in prayer and supplication? Would you remind them of what has done and how his purpose is to protect his nation? That’s what the psalmist did centuries after the exodus. See, for example, Psalms 47:1-3 Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. 2 How awesome is the Lord Most High, the great King over all the earth! 3 He subdued nations under us, peoples under our feet. Israel constantly and quickly turned from God, forgetting his benevolent power. The psalmist called for righteous worship of the Living God. What is your thirst today? Whether it is physical needs or emotional strength, remember Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. He taught us to seek what is righteous, to desire his truth and his commands. He commanded us to seek, know, remember and trust his truth for all aspects of our lives. This is the faith God required of the Jews to do that dry day in the desert. That’s what he wants from you today. LIFE Link: Psalms 47:8 God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne. Exodus 14:4 “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.”
& Exodus 14:27 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the Lord swept them into the sea. THE night had been long, dark and frightful. The Red Sea was in front of them, and the powerful Egyptian army was behind them. The Israelites, just freed from Egypt, had no safe place to go. They fearfully wondered about God’s purpose: Exodus 14:11 They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?” We can even look back to wonder why God put them in such deadly peril. We wonder and ask, “Why?” often when our lives become dark and frightful, don’t we? As Christians who hear the message, “God loves you. God saves you.” we assume all will always be good for us. Some even say that all the bad things that happen are the devil’s work. But we must know God will test you in different ways, sometimes even suffering and persecution. The Bible’s narratives are very honest and clear to tell us that it was God’s most faithful prophets and apostles who often suffered the most. Know then, that God’s purpose in the Jews fearsome night on the shore of the Red Sea is the same as his purpose for testing you today. It was to grow their faith in him and to bring glory to his name. God caused and used this to expand their minds and hearts to trust him even in the most difficult circumstances. The Egyptian army, the Red Sea, the wind and Moses would be his instruments to display his sovereign authority to protect his people. God was developing a reputation as a saving, merciful God to those he called to be his own. When the Jews remembered this in their journeys, he blessed them. When they forgot their God, he judged them back to faith. Forty years later as Israel prepared to enter the Promised Land, Moses encouraged them to remember God’s protection: Deuteronomy 7:18 But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. Ah, yes. We must live dependent on God’s power to save and protect, to conquer ass the power above all things. This is God’s testing lesson, and you must know this to be an effective, empowered Christian. Regard testing as opportunities to grow more closely to your Savior. See the trials as strengthening times to prepare you to confront and conquer the fearsome temptations that threaten our lives. Remember, as God has 13chosen you, he will come powerfully to your life. When you call out to him amid the troubled places he leads you, the LORD God will comfort, help, restore and renew you. Be of faith. Walk steadfastly with Jesus. LIFE Link: God gives you the power to pass the test. Exodus 13:6-8 “For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the Lord. 7 Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders. 8 On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’”
THE first year I was a pastor, I was naïve enough to believe people in the church would want to celebrate Jesus. I thought, “We don’t have enough joy in church. We are saved by the blood of Jesus; yet, we act as if it’s a chore to go to church, to serve our Lord, to stand and sing, to sit and pray, and to read God’s Holy Word.” I further reflected, “The Jews were a celebrating people. They worshiped on their feet with arms lifted to heaven in prayer. They bowed with face down to the ground in humble submission and adoration. They sang such songs as Psalms 150:1 Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. 2 Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness…6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.” Indeed, what would happen If we model this worship and begin to praise and honor Jesus’ love? We would truly love God and others more deeply. We would rejoice in the Father’s high and wide love, the Son’s incomparable sacrifice and the Spirit’s overwhelming power. We would more eagerly and diligently obey the Great Commandments: Mark 12:30 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” How do we come to that kind of love and worship? The answer is in the word, “remember”. In today’s scripture, God is commanding his people to take seven days a year to remember his amazing grace, love and power to deliver them from Egypt’s pagan slave-based culture. Remembering must be for more than one day or for a family meal for an hour at church. The remembering must be for enough time to allow the truth of God’s saving power to truly settle into our hearts. God knew if his people remembered his salvation from slavery, if they would remember his promises to deliver an everlasting kingdom, they would celebrate and love him! Sadly, too many Hebrews would neglect the remembering. Then they neglected their God. Their worship became meaningless religion with the chains of “I have to.” because they forgot, “I get to.” Jesus, too, commanded you to remember his sacrifice: 1 Corinthians 11:25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” When you remember the Lord’s love, how can you not celebrate? I pray your heart and your church remembers Jesus’ gospel. And you celebrate God’s love for you forever. LIFE Link: Time each day to remember Jesus—then celebrate, be joyful in him always. Exodus 12:1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old…6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. 7 Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it…11 It is the Lord's Passover. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt…13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
I pray you take some time to thank God that he has sacrificed his Son, Jesus Christ, the perfect lamb of God, for you. Praise God the Unblemished Lamb’s blood is on the cross. Be humble to confess the Lamb as your risen Jesus as your Lord. In love, then, thank God the Lamb’s blood is on you in the Spirit’s life-giving power. Rejoice the Father’s judgment passes over you, and you have life forevermore. May this day and forever be the Lord’s Passover on your soul. LIFE Link: Sin passes over the saved. Exodus 11:2-3 “Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold.” 3 (The Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.)
DOES the parenthetical phrase in verse 3 surprise you? It would be easy to assume every Egyptian hated Moses. We could also readily conclude that many Israelites were suspicious of him. After all, didn’t all the natural disruptions begin to occur when Moses came to Egypt? But again the sovereign God acts into his purpose. He stirred a favor in the Egyptian’s hearts toward his servant. This gave Moses authority and protection. Israel needed a man they could follow into new, challenging territory – even into the desert away from their home. Israel as a nation also needed Egypt’s protection. Consider what would have happened if Egypt’s people had rebelled against Israel. Chaos and violence would have disrupted God’s plans to redeem Israel. One aspect of this we often miss is that God prophesied this to Abraham some 500 years before these events. Genesis 15:13-14 Then the Lord said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.” All of these events and even people’s emotions are under God’s purpose. In effect, God birthed a nation in Egypt’s womb. He took Israel into Egypt and permitted their trials of bondage to last 400 years. At just the right time, God acted to redeem them with his protection and blessing. Know that he does the same for you. He often takes us into places where we experience trials and suffering. We can only find redemption in God’s favor, exhibited in his grace to save our souls into eternal life. He comes at his ordained time to welcome you into his life of holiness and freedom. That’s why Jesus came as he announced in Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” LIFE Link: God’s favor is his decision to save you out of sin’s bondage into eternal freedom. Ex 10:7 Then Pharaoh's servants said to him, “How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?”
FROM one day to the next, one horrible, stifling plague to the next, God was destroying Egypt. Historians say this beautiful powerful nation had extensive libraries of astronomy, natural science, crop production, architecture and philosophy. But none of this withstood the LORD God’s purpose to redeem Israel – and ultimately to redeem you. Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. This certainly was true of Pharaoh’s stubborn refusal to submit his rule to God’s rule. His servants were (Proverbs 2:2) turning (their) ear to wisdom and applying (their) hearts to understanding. They understood who was all powerful. Think of this. The servants implored Pharaoh to listen to Moses! See how Moses was made new in God’s rule. The “old” Moses had gone. The “new” Moses was wholeheartedly serving God (2 Corinthians 5:17). God had taken this shepherd man out of the desert, out of hiding from his crimes to display God’s holiness. He gathered Moses from his isolation to shepherd a nation. In God’s power, Moses became so powerful, even the common people of Pharaoh’s court said, “Listen to him!” Moses truly had access to a relentless power no one could stop. Indeed, as you are a Christian, you have access to God’s great power: Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. What would happen if today’s struggling and declining today churches would say, “Listen to God’s Word! Do you not yet understand our church is ruined? Do you know those words are the greatest power on earth? Do you know God’s Word is the power to save?” But sadly, our hearts and mind are too near Pharaoh’s, too near the world’s unbelief. Day by day, we watch a once effective church displaying God’s wisdom and knowledge slowly – sometimes suddenly – crumble around us. We attempt to use the world’s ways to restore God’s way. We do not grasp we can only contend against satanic power with the LORD God’s power to save the church from destruction. I wonder how long it will be before we listen to our LORD God. How long will it be before the world looks to the church and says, “Listen to the Word of God!” LIFE Link: God really is the ultimate power over your life and over his church. Listen to him. |
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January 2025
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