Tag: Following Jesus

Morning Musing: Exodus 14:29-31

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“But the Israelites had walked through the sea on dry ground, with the waters like a wall to them on their right and their left. That day the Lord saved Israel from the power of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. When Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and believed in him and in his servant Moses.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What did it take for you to finally believe in God? If you’re not there yet, what would it take? For Israel, it took a pretty impressive display of power. Today, let’s recap this last part of the story, talk about what God was trying to accomplish here, and why believing in God is something worthwhile.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 14:15-16

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“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to break camp. As for you, lift up your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Prayer is important stuff. Vitally important. One of the things I find myself telling my congregation more and more frequently lately is that prayer is one of the three essential things you need to be pursuing regularly and intentionally if you want to grow in your faith (the others are engagement with the Scriptures and a local body of Christ). I have several times heard messages about prayer that rightly remind folks that prayer is not a substitute for doing something. In many cases, it is the something we most need to be doing if we want to see positive changes come to a hard situation. Prayer is essentially for getting God involved in a situation to make things happen. What we see here, though, brings a much needed balance to all of this. Let’s check out God’s response to Moses and the Israelites’ panicked cries to Him when they spotted the Egyptian army bearing down on them.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 14:10-12

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“As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and there were the Egyptians coming after them! The Israelites were terrified and cried out to the Lord for help. They said to Moses, ‘Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Isn’t this what we told you in Egypt: Leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

If you have taken the journey of parenthood, do you remember when your kids went through their whiny phase? If you don’t nip this in the bud as a parent, what starts as a fairly natural phase can become a personality trait that sticks with them to the eventual frustration of everyone around them, but that’s a conversation for another time. What is it that prompts a kid to whine? The same thing that tempts us to it: not getting our way. When the Israelites saw the Egyptian army heading toward them, they felt like they hadn’t gotten their way…and they were terrified. Their response should have been a major red flag for Moses, but that’s only really visible thanks to hindsight. Israel had a great chance here to demonstrate great faith in the God who was in the process of rescuing them. Let’s talk about what they did instead and why it is a warning for us.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 14:5-9

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“When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about the people and said, ‘What have we done? We have released Israel from serving us.’ So he got his chariot ready and took his troops with him; he took six hundred of the best chariots and all the rest of the chariots of Egypt, with officers in each one. The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the Israelites, who were going out defiantly. The Egyptians – all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, his horsemen, and his army – chased after them and caught up with them as they camped by the sea beside Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever had buyer’s remorse? I remember once getting a nearly free tablet with a phone upgrade. We agreed to get it because the salesman told us it came loaded with a movie app that gave us access to all kinds of movies for free. What he didn’t say was that they were all pirated Chinese versions with subtitles that gave you access to streamable versions of some films before they had even left the theaters. I promptly took the tablet back. I was watching when he had to check the box to give a reason for the return. He checked “buyer’s remorse.” They didn’t have a box for “salesman dishonesty.” In this next part of our story, we encounter Pharaoh experiencing a bit of buyer’s remorse. Let’s talk about what was going on here and why his hard heart was still a problem.

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Digging in Deeper: 1 Samuel 15:22

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“Then Samuel said: ‘Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Some stories are just classic. And, if we’re being honest, culturally speaking, most of those stories are owned by Disney. Some of the all-time classic children’s stories have been immortalized in a certain form by a Disney animated film. This doesn’t mean the Disney version is true to the original source material for the story. It often is not. But for several generations, Disney hired the best storytellers and animators and created a cultural narrative around their versions (especially the various princesses from the fairytales they brought to life…never the princes though…I wonder how different our culture would be if Disney had poured as much effort into telling boys to be princes as they have telling girls they are all princesses) that resulted in their versions becoming the ones everybody knows. Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty were the original trio. Since then, many more have been added including the latest to get the live-action treatment and which recently launched on Disney+, The Little Mermaid. Let’s talk today about The Little Mermaid and why the real story is not the one you think it is.

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