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Post by Poet Maybe on Jan 20, 2023 17:26:22 GMT
Day 20 (Exodus 10-12)
I’m not sure of the length of time that Moses and Aaron went before Pharaoh, but they made several visits. And each visit brought another plague, at which Pharaoh promised to let them go. But when the plague ended he would go back on his word. (kind of sounds like us, when we face trials. We pray for God to help us, but when the trial is over we go back to our old ways.) As we read the story of the exodus from Egypt we may think Pharaoh is nuts. But we do the same thing at times. We get so comfortable with the status quo of our sin that we have no intention of changing. We get stubborn to the point of being arrogant. I find it interesting that Israel was in Egypt for 430 years. At first it was a life saving issue, but times change and rulers change then the situation changes. Most if not all of those who originally came to Egypt have died off. This was probably the only life that the people knew first hand, yet they trusted God to bring them out. (I’m sure there was some doubt and grumbling.. But they gave in.) Then Moses told the people to honor this memory forever with a ceremony of Passover. There are some very strict rules concerning celebrating the Lord’s Passover. These are outlined in chapter 12:43-49.
The Psalm for today, Psalm 20, brings a blessing to the heart.
1/20/23
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Post by pastor on Jan 21, 2023 14:23:50 GMT
January 21, 2023
Exodus 13-15
God told the Israelites that they were to consecrate the first born unto him. They were God’s and they could be redeemed or bought back by a sacrifice. What a beautiful illustration of the Scripture Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Also this idea of consecration is for us also, Peter tell us “ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”1 Peter 2:9
You and I have been consecrated unto Christ bought back from sin, redeemed to be a holy people.
Notice what you are to tell your children. “It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt” Notice the first person. For each generation it is the same, God bought them out of bondage. So when we tell our children and grandchildren it is always “What Jesus did for me when He died on the cross” if our salvation is not personal it is not real.
The crossing of the Red Sea – when have you been between a rock and a hard place with nowhere to turn. I love what God told Moses “Why are you crying to me, tell the people to go forward”. The only forward for them was into the sea. So God tells us, go forward, do not look at the problems behind you or the problems before you, simply follow my Word and I will part the seas before you also.
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Post by Poet Maybe on Jan 21, 2023 17:56:42 GMT
Day 21 (Exodus 13-15)
When God said to “consecrate” the first born, both man and animal. He was saying that they should be set apart for Him. To me that’s pretty special, to be a living sacrifice for the Lord. We are to keep our minds and body clean and pure, for the Holy Spirit lives in us. WOW!!! God chose us.
Chapter 14: At the first sign of trouble the people were frightened they doubted God saying; “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? “ They knew it was God that was bringing them out by all the plagues He had brought on Egypt. So why do they doubt? How many times has God called us to act yet we hesitated? Was it out of fear that God could not do what He had asked us to do? I’m sure there are several excuses we tell ourselves. Yet again God proves He is God. This reminds me of a bible verse in Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV) No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. (The temptation here being that of fear.)
The song in chapter 15 is beautifully true. “I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea. “The Lord is my strength and my defense; He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. 1/21/23
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Post by pastor on Jan 22, 2023 12:29:13 GMT
January 22, 2023 Exodus 16-18
The Video today was great I hope you all took time to watch it
How many times do you grumble against one who slaved you from slavery, who performed miracles on your behalf, who brought you through the Red Sea and killed all your enemies? Apparently quite a few. It has been just a few days since all that happened and the Israelites were grumbling and complaining because they were hungry. They struggled with the same sin as we do today, living by their feelings instead of living by faith. Even though they had seen God’s faithfulness as soon as there was a problem, as soon as they felt, hungry, thirsty, tired or whatever they complained. How much are they like us today. Reading should make us all ask God to forgive us for our complaining.
We are first introduced to mana here, God’s wonderful gift of bread in the wilderness, proving again God can provide when there is no way. Too often we think in the box and we forget God is the box, he can redefine anything any way he wants, and he made a new type of bread. Even then the people did not obey and kept to much. As the old Gospel song says Trust and obey there is no other way. Pay attention to the water on the rock, remember God’s instructions because later on in a situation very much like this Moses does not obey and it cost him going to the promise land.
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Post by Poet Maybe on Jan 22, 2023 20:13:19 GMT
Day 22 (Exodus 16-18)
Ex. 16:28-29 {Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions? Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where they are on the seventh day; no one is to go out.” } After all the Lord had done for Israel they couldn’t even follow His instructions concerning gathering of the food. That is a lot like us, we ignore what God says, wanting to do it our way. Even after we have seen Him working in our lives. Do we really think we are wiser than God? God tells us that He sat aside one day that we should rest. Yet we try to fill it with works of many kinds, other than worshiping and praising God. and we wonder why we are anxious, tired, and burned out.
It was God that sent Manna from heaven; just as He sent His Son Jesus to us as the Bread of Life. And it was God that sent to us Living Water, Christ. It seems that this is easy for us to forget when we think with our feelings.
I know it is easy for us to point to the Israelites and say how foolish they acted. But they are just a mirror of how we act. We see God work and still we doubt; we hear His word and still we question. We know He promises but do we rely on them? It’s a matter of trusting in God, and obeying His instructions.
1/22/23
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Post by pastor on Jan 23, 2023 15:32:23 GMT
January 23, 2023
Exodus 19-21
God reminds his people like He does us that we are His treasured possession. We are a Kingdom of priest (See 1 Peter 2:9) we are to be the light to the world (Matthew 5:14) so that the nations may know God. The people make their vow to follow God (19:8) and so God says He is going to come to them so they must prepare themselves. It took them three days to concecrate and prepare themselves to meet God. I wonder do we even take an hour to prepare ourselves to meet God every Sunday? Do we take 5 minutes before our devotions to quiet our mind and prepare our heats to meet God? Maybe we have such a hard time experiencing God because we do not prepare ourselves to meet Him? They could not touch the mountain or else they would die, all of them even the priest among them. How things have changed in Christ. They could not touch the mountain of God, and yet we are given the very body and blood of God in Christ every week in the Lord’s Supper. What a blessing we have through the work of Christ that we can come to God freely (Ephesians 3:11-12).
God speaks the 10 commandments to all the people of Israel, it was not until later (Exodus 32:15) that God writes them down for all the people. This is important to remember because later when Moses goes up the mountain again (in Exodus Moses goes up 8 different times)_ they make the Golden calf. (Exodus 32) they already had been told and agreed to the 10 commandment (24: 3) so they knew that to make the calf was forbidden and they were breaking their covenant promise with God.
God’s laws about slaves and selling your daughter may seem barbaric to us, but in those days laws to protect women and slaves were unheard of, this was a new concept to them. The law about killing another or killing a child in the womb again were unheard of here God reaffirms the sanctity of life in the womb. All of God’s laws were meant to bring justice, and honor on earth, and would had set the Israelites apart from every other nation on earth,
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Post by Poet Maybe on Jan 23, 2023 17:20:13 GMT
Day 23 (Exodus 19-21)
Have you ever wondered what God thought of us? Well in Exodus 19:5-6 it says: (5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”) WOW!!! God thinks of us as treasured possessions; a royal priesthood. (God thought enough of us to send His only Son to shed His blood for us. To be sin’s sacrifice for us.) If you knew you were going to meet God what would you do? How would you prepare? Would you be like the people of Israel bathe and wash your clothes? How would you prepare your heart? I mean after all this is God! Well, think about it; that is exactly what we do when we come to worship on Sunday. We come to meet with God. The people of Israel prepared for like three days to meet God. I must confess I don’t take three days. I usually pray on the way to church, and again as I sit in the pew I am in quiet prayer. God thinks enough of me to dwell in me, yet too often my thoughts are elsewhere. Sometimes I meditate on just how blessed I am by God. But it’s not every day as it should be. I allow myself to get caught up in the day to day not stopping to think who it was that gave me the day.
We read the ten commandments and sometimes we think, “don’t do this, don’t do that” and don’t even think about them. The first three are about a relationship with God; have only one God, no graven images, honor the name of God. The following seven are FOR us, they are for our benefit. I wonder how many people see the ten commandments as a blessing from God.
Ok… I’ll stop and let someone else have the soapbox. LOL 1/23/23
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Post by pastor on Jan 24, 2023 3:14:29 GMT
January 24, 2023
Exodus 22-24
Lots of Laws here I think there are 54 total but not sure if that is correct, anyway God brings order to every area of life, from your sheep and cattle to the sin of seducing a woman. The ones that really stand out are the ones protecting the foreigners, the widows, the poor and the fatherless. These protections were unheard of in those days. Those people had no rights, and the truth is in many non-Christian countries it was not until the 1900’s that they began to have any legal rights.
Notice Chapter 23 verse 4 If you come across an animal in distress even if it is your most hated enemy you are to help out, not for the animals sake but for your neighbors. God’s laws were practical to a people who did not know as much as we do, for example not planting every seventh year. They did not understand crop rotation, or the need to replenish the soil, so while many other nations planted until the ground was ruined the Israelites land continued to be fertile.
God prepares them to go into the promise land, telling them what he would do to the people that they would face, that God would drive them out before them, how disappointing it was when the time came and the people did not trust God’s promises and rebelled, and so God caused them to wander for 40 years (Numbers 14). Ask God today for the strength to trust His Word, and then no matter how afraid you are do it, you will find out God will come through every time.
The people commit to God for a third time now as they have heard the commands of the Lord again and this time they seal it with blood. “this is the blood of the covenant that the Lord as made with you concerning these words.” (24:8) Today thousands of years later it is the blood of the New Covenant that we celebrate every week. God sealed this covenant not with the blood of bulls but with the blood of His only Son. Never underestimate how holy is the Lord’s Supper.
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Post by Poet Maybe on Jan 24, 2023 17:00:27 GMT
Day 24 (Exodus 22-24)
As I was reading the laws laid out in chapter 22 I wondered. What if everyone kept to these laws today? We may think we obey all of the ones that apply today. But do we really? How many times have we tried to get away with cheating someone? And if we were caught did we pay back double? You may say but these are outdated laws, they don’t pertain to life today. Really? You can’t find a comparison? Ex. 22:28.. “Do not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people. Hmmmm… how many of us have done this in the last few years? I think if we look carefully at each of these we can find something to compare them with. God gave these laws to ease the day to day living, and yet we ignore them and bring trials to our lives.
The Psalm for today fits well with today's reading if you listen carefully.
I would like to see more people’s comments on the readings. Maybe you have noticed something we didn’t see. Maybe God has revealed something to you that He wants YOU to share.
1/24/23
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Post by pastor on Jan 24, 2023 23:12:42 GMT
January 25, 2023 Exodus 27-27
God now tells Moses to collect and offering for the Tabernacle, from every man who hearts moves him. Gold, silver, precious jewels and more. How would they have these things you may ask – weren’t they slaves, and the answer is yes they were, but we read in Exodus 12:33- 36 “Now the Egyptians pressured the people in order to send them quickly out of the country, for they said, “We’re all going to die!” So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls wrapped up in their clothes on their shoulders. The Israelites acted on Moses’s word and asked the Egyptians for silver and gold items and for clothing. And the LORD gave the people such favor with the Egyptians that they gave them what they requested. In this way they plundered the Egyptians.” The Jews walked out of Egypt with all the gold, silver, precious gems and everything else they wanted. They had more than enough (we will see later) to make the Tabernacle and cover it with all of this.
There is so much of the Tabernacle that prophecies Christ but lets just look at the bread of the presence. God commanded a table for bread be build an one it would always be the bread of the presence. We read more about it in Leviticus:
Take fine flour and bake twelve loaves of bread, using two-tenths of an ephah for each loaf. Set them in two rows, six in each row, on the table of pure gold before the LORD. Along each row put some pure incense as a memorial portion to represent the bread and to be an offering made to the LORD by fire. This bread is to be set out before the LORD regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant. It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, because it is a most holy part of their regular share of the offerings made to the LORD by fire (Leviticus 24:5-9).
Isn’t it fascinating that God had bread laid out before His throne (the Ark of the Covenant) which was the bread of His Presence among the 12 tribes of Jacob. Now it is the “Bread of Life” Jesus Christ that is before God all the time. Jesus said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:41). The twelve loaves of bread symbolically represented the twelve tribes of Israel before the presence of the LORD in the Holy Place. Jesus Christ, as our High Priest, represents God’s holy people before the presence of God in heaven (cf. Ps. 110:4; Heb. 6:20 – 7:28). But Jesus, as the Bread of life that came down from heaven, also represents the presence of God among his people on earth. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Jesus’s sacrifice which we remember each week with the bread and wine, is always before God proclaiming our salvation and forgiveness. How Holy is that bread we break each week.
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Post by pastor on Jan 26, 2023 2:04:36 GMT
January 26, 2023
Exodus 28-29
In these chapters God goes into great detail about the high priest (Aaron) robe. The following picture gives the verses where each part is described.
Verses 29-30 sum this up the best for me. Aaron will bear the names of the sones of Israel when he goes before the Lord. And the Urim and the Thummim shall be on Aaron’s heart as he goes before the Lord. Aaron will bear the weight of the people on his heart as he goes before the Lord. How often do you bear the pains, struggles, and sufferings of your brothers and sisters when you go to the Lord in prayer? How often do we pray for them, for the pastor, for the church?
God explains how Aaron and his sons will be set apart for Him, literally how they will be ordained. (I am thankful I did not have to go through all that). But then God talks about the lambs who will be sacrificed every day. One in the morning and one in the evening. 1,500 years later when Jesus walked the earth they were still sacrificing the lamb. This is what the writer of the book of Hebrews must have been thinking about when he wrote “Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Hebrews 10:1-4)
Praise God that the true lamb of God has come and taken away our sins with the one final sacrifice of Himself to completely cleanse us of sin.
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Post by Poet Maybe on Jan 26, 2023 19:13:05 GMT
Day 26 (Exodus 28-29)
Aaron and his sons were set apart for the Lord. Special robes and garments were made for them. God went into great detail as to how to make the garments and especially the ephod. There was a remembrance of the sons of Israel on it and Aaron would bear them when he went before the Lord. God was remembering His promise to Israel and He was reminding the people that He fulfills His promises. There was blood shed as a sacrifice before the Lord; a sin offering for their sins. (this would account for why they had so many animals. For the sins of man innocent blood was shed.) But when Christ came He was our final sacrifice. No more do we sacrifice animals for a sin offering; Jesus died for ALL of our sins, past, present and future.
I wonder sometimes how Aaron and his sons could even move with those heavy garments on.
1/26/23
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Post by pastor on Jan 27, 2023 4:25:08 GMT
January 27, 2023 Exodus 30-31
The Altar where Aaron will make Atonement for the sins of the people is next described. This would have been the day of Yon Kippur the day in which the lambs blood is put on the horns of the altar once a year which would atone for the peoples sin. Today we do not have an altar of gold but a cross of wood, where the blood of Jesus was poured out once for all men.
See they even had taxes back then.
God gives the rest of the details for the altar but then He tells Moses who God has chosen to build the altar, for he has been filled with the Spirit. We also have been gifted by the Spirit to do the work that God has chosen for you.
Notice how important the Sabbath is to God, if anyone does not keep it they should be cut off from the people. How well do you keep the Sabbath.
God gives Moses all His instructions on two tables written by God Himself. Sadly they do not last long – but that is for tomorrow.
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Post by Poet Maybe on Jan 27, 2023 19:06:03 GMT
Day 27 (Exodus 30-31)
After God had instructed how everything was to be made, the size, material and design, He also equipped men to do the work. God gives us tasks to do as well, and He gives us the means to accomplish the tasks He has given us. God’s Holy Spirit working in us and through us to build up His church and glorify Him.
Keeping the Sabbath Holy? I strive to keep all days holy. But I do not work on the Sabbath other than to work for the Lord. I use that day to rest, reflect and renew.
Remember all the things Aaron has seen God do, and all God has done for Aaron.
As one who knows what is to come I can only wonder why Aaron. But I’ll talk more about that tomorrow.
1/27/23
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Post by pastor on Jan 28, 2023 13:05:37 GMT
January 28th Exodus 32-34
Wow so much in these chapters I could spend hours on it. So I will just hit the highlights
Chapter 32 Aaron makes the golden calf, he does not do this unwillingly but goes along with the crowd, just like we do today so often, then when confronted by Moses he blames the people and does not take responsibility, (wow how often have we seen that since Genesis 3). It is important to note that they did this after God had spoken the 10 commandments, after they had committed themselves to God, after they had consecrated themselves. How quickly do we turn away after a time with God. We are filled with fire, and love for God but how quickly it can be lost, and we turn to sin also.
In these chapters we see Moses several times pleading for the people, offering himself for them. Paul writes in Romans 9:3 “For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” How many times have we pleaded for our church family for their sake before God? This is the heart of God the heart of Christ freely offering Himself for the sake of others.
Chapter 33
God says He will send the people on, His angels with watch over them, they will drive the people out before them, they will give the people the land of milk and honey, but God will not go with them. The people mourn over this, and Moses says If you don’t go with us we won’t go (33:15). I just wonder how many of us would say “Ok, as long as you do all those things we will be fine if you are not with us”. How many of us would be happy with the blessings of God in our lives but not having God with us?
Chapter 34
Here we see God tell us who He is, a loving God who cares for generations of those who love Him but will not allow sin to go unpunished. We have these verses as the close of the commandments in our catechism. This explains why we have the laws, because God is loving, faithful, merciful, but He will not let sin go unpunished. Ultimately we know that God truly fulfilled these words on the cross, showing unbelievable love, and complete justice at the same time.
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