THE ONLY APPROPRIATE RESPONSE

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The Lord said to Aaron, "Go into the desert to meet Moses."

So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him.

Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and also about all the miraculous signs he had commanded him to perform. Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

Exodus 4:27-31

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

How do you respond when you realize that the Lord has cared for you in the midst of difficult times?

In our scripture today, we see the only appropriate way to respond as we study the actions of the elders of Israel from the closing verses of Exodus, chapter 4. Look again at those words here:

The Lord said to Aaron, "Go into the desert to meet Moses."

So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him.

Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and also about all the miraculous signs he had commanded him to perform. Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped. Vv.27-31

In today’s passage, we are picking up where we left off in yesterday’s message as Moses narrowly escaped death at the hands of an angry God after he had failed to circumcise his son which was a disobedient violation of the covenant God made with Abraham years earlier. You’ll remember that it was only the quick action of Moses’ Midianite wife, Zipporah, that saved him as she quickly circumcised their son with a flint knife.

And so Moses, now safe from God’s judgment, departs the lodging place and goes to Egypt where he meets up with Aaron “in the desert”, an encounter initiated by the Lord. The scriptures tell us that the brotherly reunion happened “at the mountain of God".

Now, in the previous chapter of Exodus, you’ll remember where Moses had received his calling at the burning bush and we read where this was near Horeb which was called “the mountain of God” (Exodus 3:1). And so, Moses meets with Aaron in that same location.

After they greet with a kiss, Moses then shares with Aaron everything that the Lord had told him, including "all the miraculous signs he had commanded him to perform", some of which would involve the special "staff of God" that Moses had in his possession. You’ll remember that the first task was to go to the elders of the Israelites and the two brothers do this, just as God commanded.

So how did the elders respond to Moses and Aaron?

Well, God had already foretold this when he gave Moses his marching orders, saying:

“Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’”

“The elders of Israel will listen to you. Exodus 3:16-18

With this, there’s little to no suspense as Moses and Aaron spoke to the elders, sharing with them "everything the Lord had said”. Moses also "performed the signs” God had prescribed and when he did, we read where the elders “believed”, knowing that God was indeed in the midst of the plan being presented. And after hearing more about how the Lord “was concerned about them” after seeing “their misery", the scriptures tell us that the elders “bowed down and worshiped". They rejoiced and were glad in knowing their God cared for them enough that He wanted to deliver them from their hardship.

Friends, we need to grasp that the God who cared for the Israelites in the midst of their difficult life circumstances is the same God who sees and is concerned for us today. In this, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Ultimately, our Lord wants the best for us and that’s reason to rejoice, no matter what we’re going through.  

When the Israelite elders heard of God’s compassion and willingness to deliver them, they bowed down and worshiped Him in praise. It was the only appropriate response toward their Lord.

As Christians today, God has delivered us from the bondage and penalty of sin through His Son Jesus, and He did it out of love. Because of Jesus, all who believe in Him won’t perish in Hell but rather gain the eternal life of Heaven (John 3:16).

So how will we respond to this ultimate good news?

My prayer is that we’ll model the reaction of the Israelite elders in our text for today, bowing down before our Lord with a holy attitude of unending worship, praise, and gratitude. For brothers and sisters, this is our only appropriate response to our God after He has given us His goodness, grace, and mercy along with the salvation gained through His Son.

As the Apostle Paul proclaims in his second letter to the Corinthian church:

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! 2 Corinthians 9:15

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

EXPEDIENT ATONEMENT

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, "Let me go back to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive."

Jethro said, "Go, and I wish you well."

Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead."

So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.

The Lord said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.” Then say to Pharaoh, “This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, ‘Let my son go, so he may worship me. But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.'"

At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it. "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said.

So the Lord let him alone.

Exodus 4:18-26

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we see in Exodus, chapter 4, God sends Moses back to Egypt to act as His spokesperson, first to the elders and people of Israel and then to Egypt’s supreme leader, Pharaoh.

In today’s passage, we find Moses going to his Midianite father-in-law, Jethro, and asking permission to “go back to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive", a request that Jethro approves. Further, we read where the Lord had assured Moses that "all the men who wanted to kill Him” were now, a message assuring him that he and his family would be relatively safe once arriving in Egypt.

And so Moses begins the journey back “with his wife and sons on a donkey” and the "staff of God in his hand." Once in Egypt, he was to carry out the following instructions given to him by God:

"When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.” Then say to Pharaoh, “This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, ‘Let my son go, so he may worship me. But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.'"

Essentially, God would use Moses to communicate what lied ahead for Pharaoh and the Egyptians but of interest, God doesn’t mention one important thing that was to impact Moses’ immediate future. Through His words, we see where God is forecasting the future to Moses. But there is one thing the God fails to mention and as we see, it involved Moses’ immediate future.

At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it. "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said.

So the Lord let him alone.

The scriptures tell us that when the traveling party stopped “at a lodging place on the way”, the Lord “met Moses” and was “about to kill him”.

Huh?

Why in the world would God send Moses on a specific mission in Egypt only to take his life before he even got there?

I mean, in one moment, He’s talking about all the important things that He wants Moses to do in the future but then He completely reverses field and wishes to remove Moses from His plan altogether.

What could have possibly made God to be so angry that He wanted Moses dead?

Well, the answer comes in the matter of disobedience.

You see, Moses had failed to follow one very important Hebrew religious custom, one instituted by God. For when his son was born, he failed to circumcise him.

Go back to the seventeenth chapter of Genesis and you will see where circumcision was out in place by God to be a sign of His covenant with the Israelite people and in verse 13 of this chapter, we read this:

"Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant."

Obviously, Moses’ son was too young to carry out his own circumcision. That responsibility was on his father and so this is why we find God’s wrath falling upon Moses.

So what happened that saved Moses’ life?

As we see in the scriptures, it involved some quick action by his wife, Zipporah, the Midianite daughter of Jethro.

For we read where she "took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it, saying, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me." And through this act, the Lord left Moses alone. His life had been spared.

Within our scripture passage and its associated message, we find some critical takeaways to apply to our own lives:

First, we are to be obedient in carrying out God’s commands.

Moses knew the Hebrew culture and customs and yet he decided to not adhere to them, possibly because he was in the midst of the Midianite culture that didn’t practice circumcision.

Nonetheless, God expected him to stay true to the covenant He had established with Abraham and when Moses failed to keep it, he ended up in poor favor with God.

This leads to the second takeaway: God hates disobedience.

God didn’t just want to punish Moses; He wanted him dead. In this, we’re reminded that our Lord isn’t just a God of love and mercy but also a God of judgment and that judgment might include the death sentence if He so chooses.

So if we are openly sinning in disobedience against God’s word and will, we had better wake up, repent, and do whatever we need to do to abandon wickedness and exchange it for righteousness.

And this leads to our final life application point:

Expedient atonement can save you.

I think I can say with full confidence that without Zipporah’s actions, God would have indeed killed Moses and someone else would have been selected to lead Israel out of Egypt. As it turned out, her quick and decisive circumcising of their son appeased God and saved her husband.

Friends, like Moses, we too live in a world that has a completely different set of principles and customs than what God expects from those who place their belief and faith in Him. And just as Moses was adversely influenced by living amid the Midianites, so too can we be negatively impacted when we live by way of the world and its standards, standards that are centered on self and fulfilling one’s desires.

Through our Lord, Christians are called to a higher set of values, values established by God, the Maker and Master of all living things, and then lived out perfectly by Jesus, His Son. Believers are accountable to live as Christ lived and that means being fully obedient to everything he commands, commands that aren’t optional.

So if you’re living in violation of God’s Word, will, and way today, I implore you to turn away from your sin immediately and seek the expedient atonement that happened between God and Moses in our message today. Just as quickly as we get in trouble with God, we can gain His forgiveness and grace through confession and repentance.

If you’ve gone down the wrong path, reverse course this moment and don’t delay in getting right with God. Your very immediate and eternal future could be at stake.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

TRUST THE LORD

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The Lord did not appear to you'?"

Then the Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?"

"A staff," he replied.

The Lord said, "Throw it on the ground."

Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail."

So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.

"This," said the Lord, "is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you."

Then the Lord said, "Put your hand inside your cloak."

So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow.

"Now put it back into your cloak," he said.

So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.

Then the Lord said, "If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground."

Moses said to the Lord, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."

The Lord said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."

But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it."

Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it."

Exodus 4:1-17

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Excuses, excuses, excuses.

This would perfectly sum up the conversation we find between God and Moses in our passage today, taken from the first seventeen verses of Exodus, chapter 4. Look again at those verses here:

Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The Lord did not appear to you'?"

Then the Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?"

"A staff," he replied.

The Lord said, "Throw it on the ground."

Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail."

So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.

"This," said the Lord, "is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you."

Then the Lord said, "Put your hand inside your cloak."

So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow.

"Now put it back into your cloak," he said.

So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.

Then the Lord said, "If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground."

Moses said to the Lord, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."

The Lord said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."

But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it."

Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it."

Here, we find Moses revealing an internal problem, a problem that is not uncommon in believers and non-believers alike.

What was the problem?

Put simply, Moses didn't trust that God could truly do what He said He could do and what makes this completely unbelievable is that Moses had already witnessed a bush that was burning and yet unconsumed, an obvious sign of God's miraculous power, a power that clearly displayed that He would make the unconventional conventional and the impossible possible.

Further, Moses had heard God speaking to him directly from the burning bush, providing assurance that He would be with him as he returned to Egypt in order to carry out the plan he was given.

Yet, despite all this, we read Moses saying this to God:

"What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The Lord did not appear to you?’"

Now go back to when God initially tasked Moses in chapter 3. There you will find Him saying this:

“The elders of Israel will listen to you.” v.18

God had told Moses that the elders were going to listen to him and yet, we find Moses fearing they wouldn’t believe him. So either God was lying or Moses wasn’t trusting, and since God is perfectly true in every way, then we know who is at fault here. And yet, we find God being patient with him. In fact, He doubles down on showing His wonder working power to try and instill confidence and faith in Moses that he could indeed do what he was being called to do because His God was with him every step of the way.  

First, he tells Moses to throw down his staff and when he does, the scriptures tell us that it turns it into a snake before reverting back to a staff after Moses grabbed the snake by its tail.

Then, God tells Moses to stick his hand into his cloak and then withdraw it. When he does, Moses finds his hand afflicted with leprosy which miraculously disappears when he sticks his hand back into his cloak and removes it.

Two miracles, back to back, that could only be done by a power beyond that of any person, the power of God Himself.

Now, these two incredible personal experiences by Moses should have been enough for him to surrender any doubt within, subscribing himself to God’s service but we find the Lord providing yet a third example of His astounding power for Moses to tap into if need be. This involved drawing “some water from the Nile” and pouring “it on the dry ground” for when he would do this, God promised Moses that the water would “become blood on the ground."

After all this, surely Moses would surrender any disbelief, right?

Not exactly. For as we see, Moses still hasn’t used up all of his excuses as he still tried to wiggle out of doing what God was ordering him to do. We read him saying this:

"O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."

Again, we shouldn’t lose sight of how patient the Lord is with Moses, and we need to remember this as He is dealing with us as well when we have a litany of excuses for not fulfilling His plans for us. In response to Moses’ latest excuse, we find Him saying this:

"Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."

In other words, God is telling Moses that He was the One who created every man and woman in all creation. It was He who crafted every part of the body to carry out its special functions and therefore He was the One who organized and ordained them to work in harmony in order to carry out His will and way.

And so when God asks Moses, "Who gave man his mouth?", He's talking to us as well. We need to understand that saying the right things, the things that honor our Lord, will only happen when we seek Him first so to get the words to speak through the mouth He gave us. When it comes to our Christian walk, we need to seek the path He wants us to walk using the feet that He placed under us. And in regard to carrying out His purposes, we only need to place our full trust in Him to do whatever he wants to do in and through us, believing that all He does in partnership with us will work out to His glory.

That’s all we need to do and yet, we, like Moses, still fail badly in carrying this out as we allow our fears to override our faith.

We're afraid to speak about the Lord to others because we're afraid that we might be rejected or ridiculed or persecuted. And so we remain silent, even though the Lord wants us to speak out.

We are too often afraid to go where the Lord wants us to go because the way ahead might feel uncertain with potential dangers. And so like our reluctance to speak, we allow our anxiety and fear to get the best of us and end up standing still when the Lord wants for us to go and do what He demands.

And I am sure that we, like Moses, can test the limits of God’s patience to the point where He becomes angry over our stubborn resistance and refusal to let go of our excuses and place our total confidence in Him.

Well, indeed the Lord gets frustrated and mad at Moses, finally telling him that He would speak through his brother Aaron as well as him, adding that anything that Aaron said would still be received as if it came from Moses himself.

In other words, God is making it clear that His will is going to get done, no matter who speaks the words that He provides. With this, we had better understand that if we stubbornly refuse to allow the Lord to use us to accomplish His will, then He will just find someone else to use instead. The bottom line is that His will is going to be accomplished one way or another.

Now, I don't know about you but I don't want to let the Lord down, the same Lord who has given us everything to include the guarantee of eternal life through His Son, a guarantee we gain simply by believing in Jesus as Savior. As we consider His calling for our lives, we need to ponder this:

If God has given us His all, shouldn’t we be willing to give Him our all in return?

It’s a convicting question, for sure, but one we all need to be challenged with as believers.

My prayer is that we’re fully grasping what the Lord is saying to us today through His Word. For the message here us that we need to trust Him, not just with some of ourselves but with all our heart and soul and mind, understanding that He will never lead us anywhere to do anything without being right there alongside us.

Friends, as we have clearly seen through these past three messages.

We’re not alone.

God has a plan.

Let’s believe these things in trust and surrender ourselves to Him and His purposes.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

GOD HAS A PLAN

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."

Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

God said to Moses, "I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.”

"Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.'”

"The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.' But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.”

"And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians."

Exodus 3:11-22

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In the opening verses of Exodus, chapter 3, we find God communicating with Moses from a burning bush, telling him that he would be the one to lead the people of Israel from bondage and oppression to freedom in a "land flowing with milk and honey." When Moses asks, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?", you’ll remember that God assures him that he wouldn’t be doing it alone for He would be with him.

Then the scriptures show us that God does something else for Moses. He gives him a plan.

Look again at these remaining verses from this chapter:

But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."

Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

God said to Moses, "I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.”

"Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.'”

"The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.' But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.”

"And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians." Vv.11-22

Note here that Moses has doubts as to whether or not he was the right man to pull off what God wanted him to do. We know through this question he speaks to God:

"Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

Here, we find a classic hypothetical situation being presented by Moses, one that God had an answer for as He replied:

"I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you’. Say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation."

It’s important to notice here how God uses the famous forefathers of the Hebrew faith - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - to validate His identity with the Israelite people. This would help Moses gain their confidence and cooperation.

With this out of the way, we find God giving His plan to Moses and we should note something very important here. For Moses didn’t have to come up with how he would deliver the Israelites from Egypt. God had it already figured out.

We need to remember this when the Lord calls us to do things in His name. For if He calls us to something, we need to know that He already has a plan so His purposes will be fulfilled. All we need to do is follow His plan in complete obedience and trust.

So what was God’s plan?

The scriptures tell us straight from His mouth as He shares it with Moses.

"Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.'”

"The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.' But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.”

"And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians."

It was a thorough plan, one that we will see play out perfectly through our continued study of Exodus. Within it, we find God laying out every crucial step to Moses with the assurance that things will happen in exactly the way He mentions.

First, Moses was to go and gather the elders of Israel, sharing the message that God gave him. We know the elders were the ones seen as wise, consulted in matters of justice and wisdom. Note that God assures Moses that he will find no resistance from the elders, assuring that they would listen to him.

Second, God tells Moses that Pharaoh, Egypt’s supreme leader, would not be accommodating and would reject God’s proposal to let His people leave the country. Despite this, God was going to get His way through stretching out His hand and unleashing wonders on the Egyptians, which we know will end up being the ten plagues/curses.

Finally, after God would send His judgment on Egypt, He guarantees that Pharaoh would surrender and allow Moses and the Israelites to leave Egypt and head to Canaan.

In today’s message, we are reminded that God has a plan for every one of us and when we seek His will, submitting to His leading, we, like Moses, can find our Lord enter in with a blueprint for success. In the end translation, God, and only God, knows what will happen in the future before it happens. Rest assured that He has a plan for everything and He will be with us every step of the way, just as He was with Moses.

All we need to do is simply trust Him.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

During that long period, the king of Egypt died.

The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush.

Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up."

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!"

And Moses said, "Here I am."

"Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob."

At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

The Lord said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

And God said, "I will be with you."

Exodus 2:23-25, 3:1-12b

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

When we left off from the last message from Exodus, chapter 2, Moses was in Midian where he was blessed with a wife and child. Things were going well for him although his heart was still invested in his Israelite brothers and sisters, so much so that we saw Moses feeling as if he was an alien in a foreign land.

As we get to the end of chapter 2 and move into the first twelve verses of chapter 3, we find Moses continuing to work in Midian, "tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law” even as the Hebrews in Egypt were groaning “in their slavery” and crying out for help, a plea that we see “went up to God”. As God heard the cries of the Israelites, the scriptures tell us that He “heard their groaning” and “was concerned about them” as He “remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob”. All this happened while the Pharaoh that wanted to kill Moses had died himself but this obviously had not brought any relief from the oppression the people of Israel were experiencing.

Well, we know two things about God. First, He never breaks a promise and, second, He always has a plan to make sure His promises are fulfilled. As we carry on in our study of Moses, we find both validated.

In our passage, we find Moses leading the flock he tended “to the far side of the desert”, ending up “Horeb, the mountain of God”. It was there that we find an “angel of the Lord” appearing to Moses “in flames of fire from within a bush, best known among Bible students as “the burning bush”.

It didn’t take Moses long to realize that this was no ordinary busy. Because as he fixed his eyes on it, he saw a “strange sight” that drew his attention because the bush wasn’t being burned up by the flames. And so Moses decides to get closer for a better look and it was then that the Lord calls to him by name before saying:

"Do not come any close. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob."

How did Moses respond?

Well, he didn’t. This is because he “hid his face” as he was “afraid to look at God."

What a moment this was for Moses. For the same God that his forefathers had experienced was now speaking directly to him. It was now his turn to be used by the Lord in powerful ways.

So what did God have in mind for Moses in response to the cries of the enslaved Israelite people?

As we see through His words, God planned on using Moses to lead them to the Promised Land. Look again at His words here:

"I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

Wow!

Can you imagine being Moses and hearing this?

There must have been a lot of thoughts racing through his head. After all, he couldn’t even save himself from the murderous intentions of Pharaoh, instead having to run away to survive. And now, God was telling him that he was going to go and face Egypt’s powerful leader and his people head on so to save all of Israel.

Frankly, it’s of little surprise that we find Moses feeling a little apprehensive and in disbelief. I mean God doesn’t say that He will place a great army at Moses’ disposal to carry out this task of overthrowing the Egyptian oppression. No, Moses would be the one who would make it happen. He would be an army of one.

With this, we can fully understand Moses asking God:

"Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

I think we all might wonder the same thing if we were in his shoes, awash in feelings of our own inadequacy but as we see, God speaks five words of power and truth into Moses’ fears of insufficiency:

"I will be with you."

This simple statement was spoken by God to grant Moses the strength to carry out His plan and purpose, and they are words that are intended for the same reason to us today. In essence, the Lord was reminding Moses that he was not alone for He (God) was with him, just as He is with us now.

Friends, we need to keep this truth fully in mind because it us one of the absolutes we find in the scriptures. In other words, it’s one thing we can always count on.

For God, the Father, and Jesus, His Son, are always with all believers, those who place their belief and trust in them.

God, the Father, promised us that He would never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6). He reaffirms this in His words to Moses as He says, "I will be with you."

Then Jesus, at the end of His Great Commission, tells all His disciples (and that includes all Christians today) that He will be with them even until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).

With these blessed assurances, how could we ever feel alone, forsaken, abandoned, or unloved?  

As Moses went forward to carry out the huge task that God wanted him to carry out, he did so knowing the Lord was there alongside every step of the way. This same God is ever with us as well as we answer His call each and every day.

It’s nothing short of good news for today, tomorrow and forever more and so let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

FINDING REAL FREEDOM

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Jesus answered, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6

Then He said to them all: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me.”  Luke 9:23

If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  John 8:36

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

It’s Independence Day here in the United States, a day when we celebrate our nation gaining its liberty and freedom as an independent nation 249 years ago.

But guess what?

Amidst all the picnics, parades, and fireworks today lies a sobering truth.

For we’re not really free just because we live in America. The same can be said about any other nation who feels it has gained liberation by way of its own doing.

I say this because there is only one way to true freedom, a freedom that sets you free now and forever more in this world and in the one yet to come, and that was, is, and will always be through Jesus Christ, who said the following:

“I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”. John 14:6

“Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me.”  Luke 9:23

“If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”  John 8:36

So how does this equate to the fact that no one is truly free outside of Jesus?

Let me break it down for you.

First, Jesus is the only way to God the Father.

Period.

No one goes to heaven unless they have believed in Him as their Savior, the One who died to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29) and purchase the pardon of every sinner.

Second, if anyone says they believe in Jesus as Savior, then they accept that their chief identity is now changed to “Christian”. This means that they are required live like Christ Jesus in all they do, committing to follow Him and His ways.

Jesus said that He is the Way and the Truth and the Life and He is the only one a Christian is to model their life after.

Finally, in order to follow Jesus and His will and ways, Christian believers need to surrender themselves, giving up their own desires in order to follow His. Jesus said that any disciple of His must deny themselves and take up their cross daily. This means that He always comes first even if it means we need to sacrifice something we might want instead.

In other words, in order to find true freedom, a freedom that opens the gates of Heaven for us to enter in and live forever one day, we first have to lose our own freedom and do so willingly. When we look at the life of Jesus, we see where He made a life out of sacrificing for others to the point of freely suffering and dying so we might live. So if we are going to be free in and through Him, we need to sacrifice our own wants in life so to be about His business, just as He was always about the business of His Father God.

 Friends, the question to ponder on this day of independence is this:

Are you truly free today or are you out celebrating some counterfeit freedom that will not endure?

If you’re not in Jesus, then your freedom is just a worldly construct and I pray you might be ready to chance that, making today the day of your salvation, the day that you find your real liberty in this life and the eternal life to come through Jesus Christ who proclaimed:

If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  John 8:36

Amen. 

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

AN ALIEN IN A FOREIGN LAND

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.

Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock. Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.

When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, "Why have you returned so early today?"

They answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock."

"And where is he?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat."

Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, "I have become an alien in a foreign land."

Exodus 2:15b-22

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The word had gotten out.

Moses, an Israelite, had killed an Egyptian and Pharaoh wanted an eye for an eye. And so in Exodus, chapter 2, we find him wanting to kill Moses who was able to escape and flee Egypt, finding refuge in Midian. As he sits down by a well, we see more of his future begin to unfold in our passage for today. Look again at those words here:

Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.

Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock. Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.

When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, "Why have you returned so early today?"

They answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock."

"And where is he?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat."

Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, "I have become an alien in a foreign land." Vv. 15b-22

As Moses sat at the well, it was obvious that he would encounter people who would come regularly to draw from the water source.

On this day, he would meet “seven daughters” of “a priest of Midian” who had come to "draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock." The scriptures tell us that while they were trying to get water, they were harassed by some shepherds but we read that Moses "came to their rescue" and then even "watered the flock" for them.

Afterwards, the daughters returned to their father, Reuel, sharing what had transpired and what Moses had done. The story prompted Reuel to ask about Moses’ whereabouts before rebuking his daughters for leaving him without offering some form of gratitude through hospitality. In Reuel’s mind,  he feels the least he could do is offer something in return for what Moses had done for his daughters.

And so we read where he asks Moses to join the family for a meal, an invitation he agrees to. In fact, we read that Moses received far more than just food and a few nights’ stay. For the scriptures tell us that the priest of Midian gives his daughter, Zipporah, to Moses in marriage and after they are wed, they have a son who they named Gershom. All seemed like it was going fine for Moses but there was something wrong. For we read at the end of this scripture passage that he felt like "an alien in a foreign land", his feelings exposed through the name he gave his son.

With this, we get a sense that Moses really yearned to return to Egypt for although he was staying in Midian, he was not a Midianite at heart. And although he had come from Egypt and the Midianite hosts believed he was an Egyptian, we know he wasn’t an Egyptian at heart either. Rather, Moses was a full blooded Hebrew with a heart that loved his fellow brothers and sisters, the ones who were still in Egypt suffering from oppression and hardship. With this, it had to be extremely hard for Moses to feel good about his relatively good and safe conditions when he knew of the difficulty his fellow Israelites were experiencing in the place he had fled.

All this brought thoughts to my mind when maybe we have felt like aliens in a foreign land.

For example, I have changed jobs, and even work locations within the same organization, many times in my life. Every one of them was unsettling going into because the jobs were different with unique expectations and requirements. The people I worked with were different and every new start in employment meant I had to integrate and fit in with another group of people, which anyone who has done it knows takes time.

We could draw parallels to this anytime we experienced change in relationships or living arrangements or finances, anywhere that became new and/or uncharted territory or anything that may remove us from our comfort zone and into a place that is full of unknown. These transitions can leave us feeling off balance, maybe even alone and isolated with an uncertainty of what the future may hold.

Maybe you can relate to some of these feelings that Moses must have felt. I know I can.

Well, the good news is that we, like Moses, will soon realize that we serve a God who has a way of putting us where He wants us to be and sometimes this requires us to go to places where we might be an alien in a foreign land. After all, when we made the choice to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the scriptures let us know that we became a new creation for what was in the past was gone and everything after our rebirth became new and blessed (2 Corinthians 5:17). Through this conversion, we were no longer expected to be of the world, although we lived in the world.

In other words, through Jesus, we became aliens in a foreign land, disciples who now lived under a new set of holy and righteous standards for in Christ, we stand for principles and values that place us in conflict with the world and its sinfulness.

We also are disciples who will one day have a permanent change of address as we move on to a new eternal home in Heaven, a land of future eternal hope where we will live forever. Until then, all Christian believers are to be on a quest through the Great Commission to help alienate others from the world and its sinfulness, drawing them into a righteous new relationship with the Savior who delivers them from death to life, from a dark world into a new eternal place filled with light and hope and love.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.