How long will we wander, before returning to Him?

Posts tagged ‘Egyptians’

88) [YOUR NAME HERE] Servant of the Lord

Let’s jump right in to today’s scripture passage, as there is so much to discuss.

Today’s scripture reading: Joshua, chapters 22-24, the final chapters

First of all, I’m sure you noticed as I did the repetition within the first five verses of today’s reading of Moses’ descriptor: Moses the servant of the Lord. Moses is mentioned like that three times within the first five verses of chapter 22, and every Bible translation I checked had the verbiage exactly like that: Moses the servant of the Lord.

moses-servant-of-the-lord

Wouldn’t you love to be described that way, as a servant of the Lord? Of course, enjoying that may hinge on pride, but really I’m just speaking hypothetically. If we are on this journey together, likelihood is that we all consider ourselves servants of the Lord, but do others see that servant-hood in us? If they do not, it is my opinion that we need to work harder. We don’t need to boast about our servant-hood  but those around us should see the Lord as Master of our lives, just by knowing and living in close proximity with us. Can they see it? Is it there? Is there more we can each still do?

Try it out for size:

Marilyn, servant of the Lord.

Lisa, servant of the Lord.

Alice, servant of the Lord.

Katherine, servant of the Lord.

(Insert your name here), servant of the Lord.

Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Now, let’s back up our titles with action!

Next, the business with the alternate altar struck me as more than a bit odd, and I would really love to hear some educated guesses on this one; hopefully you can help me get my mind around this whole story.

Thus says the whole congregation of the Lord, “What is this unfaithful act you have committed against the God of Israel, turning away from following the Lord this day, by building yourselves an altar, to rebel against the Lord this day?” (22:16, NASB)

“Did not Achan the son of Zerah act unfaithfully in the things under the ban, and wrath fall on all the congregation of Israel? And that man did not perish alone in his iniquity.” (22:20, NASB)

Then the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered and spoke to the heads of the families of Israel. (22:21, NASB)

“Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord and turn away from following the Lord this day, by building an altar for burnt offering, for grain offering or for sacrifice, besides the altar of the Lord our God which is before His tabernacle.” (22:29, NASB)

The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad called the altar Witness; “For,” they said, “it is a witness between us that the Lord is God.” (22:34, NASB)

I can see from a logical standpoint where the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh were coming from, but the feeling side of me can’t get the rationale behind having a copy of the tabernacle altar. I truly look forward to researching this topic further at a later date–as I am working through this year purposefully avoiding the outside influences that come with doing reading and research to accompany each day’s Bible in a Year passage of scripture; this year is about opening my own mind and understanding. Until then, I would love to know your thoughts or what you have studied about this particular portion of scripture.

As we come to the end of Joshua’s life, and therefore the end of the book of Joshua, I enjoy his sort of parting words and reminders and tying up loose ends.  Joshua, being older and certainly of a natural age to pass, seemed to know that he was not long for this earth, though it is not written that the Lord told him as much directly as He had Moses before him.

But Joshua tells the people of Israel: “Be very careful to love the Lord your God.” (23: 11, NIV)

“You know in your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words with the Lord your God spoke concerning you has failed; all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed.” (23:14, NASB)

Then, my favorite part, the recap (my husband says I am queen of the recap, which is not necessarily a compliment in his book, but is in mine):

Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods. But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the river and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.

“‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. When I brought your fathers out of Egypt, you cam to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea. But they cried to the Lord for help, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the desert for a long time.

“‘I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and y0u took possession of their land. When Balak son of Zippor, the kind of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you. But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.

“‘Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands. I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you–also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’

“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods of your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods of your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (24:2-15, NIV)

Here’s what I love about this particular recap: this is your’s and my story, as well. Our versions have different details, but in the end, we are all on the same path to the Lord. My version would go something like this:

For generations, your family has served the Lord faithfully, acting in kind and serving the Lord in many ways. Through Eli and Ellen, Jack and Sherlie, the Lord has blessed your life, giving you Gary and Susan as faithful parents and role models to follow on your path. It is because of their faithfulness and good deeds in the Lord’s name that your life has been richly blessed, and through your service, your children’s lives will continue to be blessed, as well.

You have been sent around the country, meeting people and being introduced to cultures and people who you may not have ever been exposed to otherwise, with less faithful forefathers, but those experiences will serve you well as long as you walk the earth in service.

Then, through your husband’s family, you were blessed with a God-fearing husband, and through trials and tests, the Lord has been with you and protected you from the enemy, and brought you closer to Him. Together with your family, He brought you to a place where you would walk closer to God than ever before, as you progress down the path in faith, His grace is there with you always. He is leading you and directing you and your family continually, and as long as you listen to His guidance, you will continue to be blessed servants of the Lord.

Make it a great day,

Marilyn

As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. (24:15, NIV)

Day 88 reading: Judges, chapters 1-2

Category:

Bible in a Year-Chronological Study, Blessings, Children, Faith, Joshua, Perseverance, Service

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34) The Lord Will Fight for You

Day 34 reading: Exodus, chapters 13-15

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. 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? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (14:10-14, NIV)

Steve Marilyn Christmas2012This week is the year anniversary of my husband losing his job (see “Walking in it”), which was the moment when we learned how to be still before God. It was kind of like learning to swim by being thrown into the deep end, but sometimes it takes something extreme to teach us the greatest lessons. As Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt, he dealt with a population of scared, unsure, and wavering people. They would have much rather remained in the safety of the “dry land” of Egypt than to be thrown in the deep end of the pool, under siege by their previous rulers.

Then Moses said to the people, “Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the Lord brought you out of it with a mighty hand.” (13:3, NIV)

My man and I have had an interesting year since that anniversary, and though we have still wavered in uncertainty at times, just like the Israelites, we have also seen the mighty hand of the Lord at work every day. He truly goes ahead of us each with a proverbial pillar of cloud to guide by day, and a pillar of fire to give light by night. He provides, He protects, He restores!

So, my question for you is: Where is your Egypt? Where have our Lord and Provider delivered you? Are you sitting somewhere now, wondering if this is really what He had in mind? Did you miss a Road Sign somewhere, or are you still on the path He set before you? We ALL have times like the Israelites when we’d just as soon return to the comforts of our old life just to avoid the struggles and uncertainty of today, but Moses reassures us today: THE LORD WILL FIGHT FOR YOU; YOU NEED ONLY TO BE STILL.

The best lesson I can share for all who are dealing with this battle with uncertainty right now, I learned a year ago. The Lord created us as human-beings, not human-doings; the less we do to try to force God’s hand, the easier He can work through us uninhibited. Steve and my mantra throughout the past year has been, “Not my will but Your will.” This is the same lesson Moses was conveying to the Israelites. We need only to be still and know that He is God.

Amen!

Day 35 reading: Exodus, chapters 16-18

Make it a great day,

Marilyn

Category:

Bible in a Year-Chronological Study, Blessings, Exodus, Faith, Perseverance, Quiet time, Seeing God, Trust

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33) Ancestral Heritage

Today we continue with God’s wrath on the Egyptians for not releasing His people from captivity.

Day 33 reading: Exodus, chapters 10-12

The the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord.” (10:1-2, NIV)

My parents, 3/5ths of the kids, and I, Christmas 2012 (Steve was behind the camera!)

My parents, 3/5ths of the kids, and I, Christmas 2012 (Steve was behind the camera!)

The Lord cares about ancestry, blood lines, family, and heritage. I don’t know about you, but I get stressed just over the doctor asking about my family medical history back through my grandparents. There are genealogist-types in my family that keep track of all the records and documentation of who crossed what ocean on what boat and when, but I am not one of them. However, reading just this small passage makes me want to learn more and hear more of the stories my parents and grandparents have shared over the years. In the times we are reading through now, people also lived longer than they do today. We get excited to get a picture with four, maybe even five, generations together, but imagine how many generations you could live to see and tell stories to if you lived to be 137 years old like Levi (Exodus 6:16), 110 years like Joseph (Genesis 50: 26), or 140 years like Job (Job 42:16).

Yesterday, I shared with you about The History Channel program my husband and I had watched, The Exodus Decoded. Today, as the plagues continue, I can’t help but think it interesting that the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart over and over again so that everything in the land of the Egyptians would be destroyed, even the people themselves, before the Israelites would be allowed to leave Egypt. Through bloody water, frogs, gnats, flies, disease, and hail in yesterday’s scripture passage, then today’s locusts, darkness, and even the deaths of every Egyptian first-born son (human and animals), Pharaoh and the Egyptian peoples lost everything.

Stepping Up Beth MooreIn Beth Moore’s Bible study, entitled Stepping Up: A Journey Through the Psalms of Ascent, she demonstrated how the Israelites would have painted their door posts with lamb’s blood for the Passover that we are studying today. It was interesting for me to see her take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs (12:7, NIV), as she brushed the blood onto the wood with hyssop.

Another time I have encountered delving into the Passover was when I read A.J. Jacob’s Year of Living Biblically, where he devoted a year to living as closely as he could to the laws as outlined in the Bible. Sometimes he passed, sometimes he failed, but his adventures (and mis-adventures) always made for entertaining reading. And, I must say, that although A. J. Jacobs considers himself a Jewish-born agnostic, his book proved enlightening into some of the history and facts behind hundreds of Biblical laws, like the Passover that we are reading about in today’s passage.

Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt. Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for generations to come. (12:40-42, NIV)

Family. Generations. Blood lines. Divisions. We are important to our Lord, the one and only God. He keeps His promises to us and is ever faithful to us, His children. Just as He brought His chosen people out of Egyptian slavery, He will also bring you and I out of the slavery and sin we have gotten ourselves tangled up in. The Lord said, “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.” (12:24, NIV)

Where do we learn our habits, customs, history from these days? How are we ensuring that these same stories are continuing down the line to our children and our children’s children? He performs miraculous signs in our lives every day, so that we may tell our children and grandchildren how He dealt harshly with those who keep us captive, and how He performs His signs among us, so that we may know that He is the Lord (10:1-2). Amen!

Make it a great day,

Marilyn

Day 34 reading: Exodus, chapters 13-15

Category:

Bible in a Year-Chronological Study, Children, Exodus, Perseverance

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32) The Exodus Decoded

I’m really not clear why the Israelite years of slavery and captivity and their escape from their Egyptian masters is so thrilling to me, but every passage of scripture I read these days is just exciting to me.

Day 32 reading: Exodus, chapters 7-9The Exodus Decoded DVD cover art

This reading just happens (coincidence? I think NOT) to coincide with a History Channel show that I DVR’d a few days ago, The Exodus Decoded.

My husband, Steve, and I have sat together watching this in bits and pieces as we can (remember: there are 3 kids left in our house, so watching anything uninterrupted from start to finish is virtually impossible during waking hours).

Here’s what The History Channel has to say about the show:

At the very heart of Judaism, Christianity and Islam lies the story of the Exodus, an epic tale of plagues, miracles and revelations. But the truth behind these events has been obscured by faith and time–until now.

After six years of unprecedented research, host Simcha Jacobovici and a team of renowned archeologists, Egyptologists, geologists, and theologians shed revelatory new light on the Exodus and the era’s ruling Egyptian Dynasty. Their new theory pushes events hundreds of years earlier than previously thought, allowing age-old stories to sparkle with new perspectives and startling historical import.

Using elaborate, state-of-the-art CGI, THE EXODUS DECODED offers a stunning virtual account of stories like the birth of Moses, the ten plagues, and the parting of the Red Sea, revealing once and for all the difference between acts of Nature and the hand of God. Executive Produced by James Cameron (who appears on camera) and Simcha Jacobovici (who also hosts), the viewer follows Jacobovici to Egypt, Greece and Israel, on an investigative archaeological journey that pieces together a puzzle of tantalizing clues.

Even for a non-science, non-history buff like myself, it was tremendously interesting and I especially enjoyed having all the studies we’ve gone through already being so fresh on my brain as I watched it. I could pinpoint each Biblical story as they mentioned, researched, and interlaced scientific evidence with the Biblical history.

This was a breath of fresh air for someone like me. I believe I have said before that evolution, the Big Bang Theory, creationism, whatever else you want to refer to the beginning of all does not bother me. I have no problem believing that God could create the world in six days and rest on the seventh; and I have no problem believing that He can do all that and make it come out looking to scientists like it all occurred in a big bang…this is God we’re talking about, people! If He says He is going to strike down every first born son in the land, He can do it however He chooses to do so.

He doesn’t have to just strike the sons down, He can do it with style. He can do it in a way that can also be justified by scientific means. This is interesting to me because scientific types tend to use science against God, when really for me there is no greater proof than that God can do all things and still have them make sense.

What I enjoyed most about The Exodus Decoded (here in “TEC”) was that rather than trying to find scientific proof to disprove the existence of God in historical accounts, this show and group of scientists, archaeologists, and the like, were working to prove that it all matches up.

Take our passage of scripture for today as an example. TEC explained that the Nile River turning to blood could have been caused by gases being emitted from underground, after the tectonic plates have rubbed together, also causing a volcanic eruption and multiple earthquakes. This one seemingly simple thing, according to TEC would have caused the snow-ball effect of the river turning blood/rust red, the fish in the Nile dying, and the frogs coming up into the land (because they would have been the only creatures living in that water that could have survived the gases). Then, when the Pharaoh begged Moses to pray to the Lord and have the frogs go away, The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyard and in the fields. They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them (8:13-14, NIV).

Those piles of frogs, then, would explain the gnats that came next, then the swarms of flies. Then, as TEC tells it, because of all the disease that was being passed around by the gnats and flies from the heaps of dead frogs everywhere and all the dead fish floating on the water, All the livestock of the Egyptians died (9:6, NIV).

And, again, because of all of the disease that swarmed through Egypt, the skin diseases and festering boils broke out on men and animals (9:10, NIV).

TEC also describes the reasoning behind the hail storm that came next, which was caused from the volcanic ash forming clouds in the skies and crystallizing into hail-like bits that then plummeted back to the ground.

I am no scientist, but as a believer in God I have absolutely no issue with TEC and other groups of thinkers trying to make it all fit. Our God is an awesome God!

There are a couple of aspects of the program that glossed over some things from our reading today, however, and I would like to touch on those for a moment. The first of these is that when God turned the Nile River to blood, He told Moses that “Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in the wooden buckets and stone jars.” (7:19, NIV) This isn’t a possibility if gases caused the river to turn.

Next, not one animal belonging to the Israelites died (9:6, NIV) while all the Egyptian livestock died. This cannot be scientifically brushed under the rug, can it?

And most of all, throughout each of these occurrences that plagued the Egyptians, but the Israelites remained unaffected by the swarms and diseases and hailstones that rained down over the Egyptians. God had told Moses, “I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live” (8:22, NIV).

The Lord our God is ever-faithful to His promises. The key is remembering that His timing does not always coincide with our schedules; but on His schedule, He will bring and fulfill all things in us and through us that He has promised you and I. He is I Am!

Make it a great day,

Marilyn

Day 33 reading: Exodus, chapters 10-12

Category:

Bible in a Year-Chronological Study, Creation, Exodus, Faith, Seeing God, Trust

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30) “The more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread”

We are 30 days in and on into the Book of Exodus; this is a very exciting day!

Today’s reading: Exodus, chapters 1-3Snapshot_20121230_6

OK, so today we have baby Moses in his basket and Pharaoh’s daughter, and the Lord speaking to Moses out of the burning bush. We’ve heard these pieces preached, we’ve discussed them in Sunday School classes. But one particular verse caught my attention and I would like to focus on that for our chronological post of the day.

But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. (1:12, NIV)

Doesn’t this hold true still today? When we stand firm on our beliefs, no matter how the oppression comes at us and no matter what form it comes in, we will remain empowered.

The more they were oppressed. On journeys like the one we are on together, we are bound to find oppression coming on us because the evil one does not want our foundation to be strong. He wants us to be weak and easy to push around, so he’s going to bring his oppressive forces out against us more and more, the stronger we are and the more focused on the Lord that we become.

The more they were multiplied and spread. In all that we do, it is our primary duty as God’s children to spread His good news. This is one reason I have chosen a public forum to move through through this chronological Bible study journey (but mainly it’s so that I am held accountable every day to read and journal), and I am so appreciative for all the positive feedback I have received from those of you who are journeying with me. When the good news of the Lord our God spreads, as those who know and believe His Word are multiplied, He is glorified. That is our duty.

[The oppressors] came to dread [the oppressed] and worked them ruthlessly. Evil dreads being around those who walk with the Lord.  I imagine it’s like in the movies when Holy Water is splashed on a demon-possessed character and there are shrieks of pain. We can defeat evil with Good, and this foundation that we are building together is such a critical step.

I’m glad we’re on this road together.

Make it a great day,

Marilyn

Day 31 reading: Exodus, chapters 4-6

Category:

Bible in a Year-Chronological Study, Exodus, Perseverance, Trust

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