Exodus Day 1

Sorry I missed you all yesterday. Sammi is definitely on the mend, but she's still taking pain medications and she tires very easily. I heard Steve did a fantastic job of covering world history from the first ray of light to the last breath of Joseph in 45 minutes!

We have two weeks before we review Exodus (since next Sunday is Missionary Sunday), so we can read through this one a little more slowly. If you read 4 chapters a day, you can take 2 days of your choice off (I always have trouble reading on Saturdays for some reason)!

Today, read Exodus 1-4 (you can read it here)

Today's devotion: Exodus 3:10-17

Context: Moses has been born, adopted by Pharaoh's daughter, discovered who he is, killed an Egyptian, escaped to Midian, married Zipporah, and has become a shepherd. While tending the sheep, he has seen the burning bush and he's now talking with God. God is speaking:

Text:

10 "So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

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

12 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 [a] will worship God on this mountain."

13 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?"

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

15 God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, [c] 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.

16 "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. 17 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.'(NIV)

Footnotes:

a. Exodus 3:12 The Hebrew is plural.
b. Exodus 3:14 Or I will be what I will be
c. Exodus 3:15 The Hebrew for LORD sounds like and may be derived from the Hebrew for I am in verse 14.

taken from www.biblegateway.com

I often joke that I wish I could receive a postcard or letter from God telling me what he wants me to do. But, like Moses, I imagine that even if I held such a letter in my hand, or if I was confronted with an unbelievable miracle of God, I would unfortunately still be hesitant. God is very patient with Moses, even though He gets angry at Moses' doubt.

This passage always reminds me that God's ways are not our ways (or at least mine!). If I were in a situation like this, I know I would be in disbelieve...it would be easier to believe I'd fallen and was in an unconscious dream. God tells Moses that He will give a sign so Moses knows it is God who sends him. Did you catch the sign?

AFTER Moses has approached Pharaoh, gotten about a million people to work together, helped them escape, and he's taken them several days across the desert, THEN they will worship God on the very mountain where he is standing at the moment. Hello....I think I'd need a sign a little more immediate than that (stating, of course, that the burning bush wasn't sufficient...).

It reminds me of the miracles Jesus did in public view, yet the Pharisees still wanted another sign. Lord, help me in my disbelief!