Tag: Understanding the Old Testament

Morning Musing: Exodus 5:1-2

Leave a comment

“Later, Moses and Aaron went in and said to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival for me in the wilderness.’ But Pharaoh responded, ‘Who is the Lord that I should obey him by letting Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Stepping out in obedience to God’s command often takes a lot of courage. He occasionally calls us to big and bold actions to advance His kingdom. Perhaps you have taken just such a step of faith before. And perhaps when you did, everything fell right into place, and you enjoyed success and the blessing that comes with faithfulness. But maybe things didn’t go quite as you were planning. In fact, maybe they went the opposite of that. If that was your experience, you have something in common with Moses and Aaron. Let’s talk about their first encounter with Pharaoh and when things don’t go according to plan.

Read the rest…

Morning Musing: Exodus 4:27-31

Leave a comment

“Now the Lord had said to Aaron, ‘Go and meet Moses in the wilderness.’ So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and about all the signs he had commanded him to do. Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites. Aaron repeated everything the Lord had said to Moses and performed the signs before the people. The people believed, and when they heard that the Lord had paid attention to them and that he had seen their misery, they knelt low and worshiped.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When you don’t have the rhythm or melody of a song, it’s really hard to understand and enjoy it. It makes it harder for other people to enjoy it too. I remember once when I was playing drums for my high school jazz band – and in a competition no less! – and I flipped the beat. I had had my hi-hat foot chomping along on the 2 and the 4, and suddenly I was riding hard on the 1 and the 3. Or, if you’re not a music person at all, I messed up big time. The whole band nearly fell apart, and would have but for our director’s quick thinking and directing like we were a concert band until I could get the beat back in the right place. In a similar sort of way, it’s hard to understand and apply passages of the Scriptures – especially in the Old Testament – when we don’t have their rhythm down. Let’s talk a bit about the rhythm of these verses, and what it might look like to incorporate them into our lives.

Read the rest…

Morning Musing: Exodus 4:24-26

2 Comments

“On the trip, at an overnight campsite, it happened that the Lord confronted him and intended to put him to death. So Zipporah took a flint, cut off her son’s foreskin, threw it at Moses’s feet, and said, ‘You are a bridegroom of blood to me!’ So he let him alone. At that time she said, ‘You are a bridegroom of blood,’ referring to the circumcision.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of my favorite Monty Python movies is “Now for Something Completely Different.” It’s just a string of sketches, each one totally different from the last. Every time they switch from one to another, something completely random comes across the screen and one of the comedy troupe members looks right at the camera and says, “And now for something completely different.” This story would fit rather snuggly in that category. It seems to come totally out of left field and doesn’t make a lot of sense. Let’s talk about what may be going on here, and how it fits in the larger story.

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Exodus 3:7-10

2 Comments

‘Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors. I know about their sufferings, and I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey – the territory of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. So because the Israelites’ cry for help has come to me, and I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them, therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

It is sometimes a difficult business knowing when to step in and when to stay out of the way. This is true in all sorts of different areas of life. It is especially true when it comes to the people we love most. Sometimes a person needs to go through a season of challenge and hardship because of what they will gain by overcoming it. There’s probably a sermon on parenting in there waiting to be preached, but we’ll have to tackle that another time. Still, though, when someone you love is crying out for help, your natural instinct is to be compassionate and help them. When this happens, you are reflecting the heart of God. Let’s talk about this through the lens of the next part of Moses’ story.

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Exodus 3:1

Leave a comment

“Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

On occasion people will compare the times in which we live our lives to those before us. Usually this is done in a spirit of nostalgia, and we don’t come off looking very good. I’m not typically a fan of this. Nostalgia is a deceptively tough master that will leave us longing for a past that never really existed and discontented about the present. That being said, there is one point in particular at which we come off looking worse than our forebears that I would like to give some attention to this morning: We don’t like to wait for things. Humans have never been well-known for patience, but in our instant society, we’re particularly bad and getting worse. This creates problems when we serve a God who literally has all the time in the world. We get a glimpse of this as we move into the next part of Moses’ story. Let’s talk about it today.

Read the rest…