The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 51

Yahweh establishes a covenant with Israel

Read Exodus 19:1–25.

It’s been two months since Israel left Egypt. Yahweh had led the people all the way to the foot of Mount Sinai where He had earlier commissioned Moses to lead the people.

God had promised Moses He would bring the people to Mount Sinai so they could worship Him there. This would be a sign for Moses that Yahweh was trustworthy.

“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 will worship God on this mountain.’” (Exodus 3:12.)

Now here they were! Yahweh truly keeps all His promises.

Yahweh had powerfully and singlehandedly saved Israel and made them His people. He didn’t require any effort from them to make this happen. They simply trusted what He said. He called Israel His firstborn son.

Through them, Yahweh would demonstrate to other nations what it is like to live with the Creator-God.

• Yahweh called them by three special names. They were:

• God’s own possession (They were a special treasure that belonged to God and no one else.)

• A kingdom of priests (They had a special job—to mediate between Yahweh and the other nations, bringing God’s message of reconciliation to the world.)

• A holy nation (They were to be set apart to live differently. They were to be loyal to God and live in the way He taught them.)

Yahweh didn’t let them make up their own ideas of how their relationship with Him would work. He brought them to Mount Sinai so He could tell them how to live with Him and each other. He did this by making a contract, or covenant with them.

We have already seen Yahweh make two covenants: the covenant with Noah and mankind, where He promised not to overwhelm the earth with another global flood judgment; and the covenant with Abraham, where Yahweh promised Abraham land, many descendants and that through Abraham’s family, He would deliver a worldwide blessing. These two covenants were unconditional, meaning Yahweh alone would fulfil these covenants. The contract fulfilment would not be based on any action of the people involved.

Now Yahweh was entering into another covenant, this time with the nation of Israel. This covenant was different, for God had obligations for the people to fulfil. They had to obey the law that He gave them in order for them to enjoy life with Him. Now that they were His people, He had expectations of how they were to live righteously before Him with a heart of gratitude for what He had done for them.

Throughout the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, Yahweh gave a compact set of 613 laws that governed all aspects of their society and life.

These laws explained how to relate to God, to each other and how to take care of creation. Obeying these laws would not only allow them to live, but thrive. Yahweh would be the centre of everything. He was their sovereign God and they were His people, accountable to Him. They had a unique position in the world and a unique responsibility towards the rest of mankind.

For them to enjoy their relationship with Him, Yahweh required that they know and respect who He is and recognise who they were to Him. So Yahweh had Moses prepare the people to meet Him.

God got the people to wash their clothes and abstain from sexual relations. They were physically setting themselves apart from ordinary life and getting into the right frame of mind, to have the right attitude of awe. They had to be set apart, purified and cleansed in other to be in God’s presence.

God was demonstrating how He Himself, as the all-righteous God, is set apart and very different from fallen creation. Being set apart is simply called “holy”.

When Yahweh came to them, it truly was such a majestic and powerful appearance. His presence was seen and felt through a huge cloud that covered the mountain. There was continuous lightning, thunder and also smoke. The mountain and the ground rumbled with an earthquake and there was the sound a ram’s horn (that is, a wind instrument made from the horn of a sheep).

Yahweh had told Moses to put a boundary line of stones around the mountain that the people could not cross. God was demonstrating that He was set apart from them and they couldn’t approach Him casually. Yahweh was demonstrating two truths:

• He would be near His people.

• At the same time He was above and beyond them for He is all-righteous.

In our own lives, we too, can have an intimate, Father-and-child relationship with the Creator-God of the universe. In fact, God wants to be the central part of our lives where He not only leads us, but supplies us with what we need to thrive. Reflect on how our relationship with God is like. Do we want that kind of deeply personal and precious relationship with Yahweh? Pray and tell Him what you are thinking.

As believers of the church age, we also are called to be His representatives to the world. He wants us to show others who He is and what He is like. And so He tells us the way to live. Think about who we would like to share the love of God with. Pray and ask God for opportunities to tell them about Him. Also ask God for help so we can live our lives in a way that would attract them to Him.

The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 50

Yahweh provides advice through Moses’ father-in-law

Read Exodus 18:1–27.

Today’s Scripture reading begins with the reunion of Moses with his wife and two sons. Moses had left Midian without them to begin the job Yahweh had chosen him for. Now, many many months later, he was reunited with them. What a reunion it must have been!

The Bible tells us his sons’ names: Gershom and Eliezer. Gershom means “banishment”. It reminded Moses of when he was banished from Egypt. Eliezer means “my God is help”. Moses recognised that despite the hardships of his life, God had been his constant help.

Moses also had a reunion with his father-in-law, Jethro (also known as Reuel). Moses had deep respect for Jethro, who was a shepherd, but who was also a priest of Yahweh. Jethro had already learnt what Yahweh had done for Israel. (It showed that the news had travelled far and wide!) But now, as Moses told him more details, Jethro praised Yahweh even more. He offered sacrifices to God and he also hosted a thanksgiving meal to God with Moses and the elders of Israel.

So we see that Jethro was a worshipper of Yahweh. There were others besides the Israelites who worshipped the true God. Their knowledge of God was also based on Yahweh’s revelation of Himself and His historical actions.

After this, Jethro visited the Israelite camp. The Israelites were not always on the move. Sometimes, God had them camp at a certain location for a period of time. Jethro observed the daily life in the camp and he saw the Israelites go to Moses for help in both spiritual matters and ordinary matters like disputes among the people. Moses was busy settling these issues from morning till evening. Moses was serving as the people’s mediator (the go-between for Yahweh and the people) as well as the judge (he settled disputes among the people).

As someone wise, Jethro immediately saw the problem—it was a management problem. He told Moses he would wear himself and the people out by personally handling all the issues. There just wasn’t enough time in a day to handle so many people.

Jethro was blunt—he told Moses he could not lead alone. Then he offered a solution: he first advised Moses to stick to being the people’s representative before Yahweh. Moses would continue to listen to Yahweh’s instructions regarding the people and he would bring to God the people’s needs. Moses would be the mediator (the go-between) and the intercessor (the one who intervenes on the people’s behalf, especially through prayer).

Second, for other daily matters, Jethro advised getting help from the tribal leaders. Each of the twelve tribes of Israel had tribal leaders. Jethro’s advice was to appoint them to be in charge of groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. These leaders would be given the authority to settle everyday problems and disputes. In this way, they would relieve Moses of these smaller issues.

But if there were a larger issue that the tribal leaders could not resolve, then they were to consult Moses. Thus, Moses could focus on listening to God’s guidance and leading the nation, and these leaders could support the leadership burden of Moses by taking care of everyday matters.

Moses listened to his father-in-law. His advice freed Moses from handling all of the people’s issues. It also allowed the tribal leaders to be involved in the running of the nation and it allowed the people to get quicker help and resolution.

We see that God can help his people through the advice and help of other believers, particularly mature believers like Jethro. While we know we can hear from God directly through prayer and the study of Scripture, we see that God can also direct mature believers to help us in our growth journey.

In doing God’s work, there is the risk of taking on too much and thus getting ourselves exhausted. There is wisdom in delegating or dividing up the work so that each believer involved is not overwhelmed and a team working together can support each other and get the work done. We must never feel alone but know how to reach out for help.

And we must also be on the lookout for opportunities to help a fellow believer or to speak into the situation with the biblical wisdom that we have learnt.

The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 49

Yahweh tests His people with a lack of water and an Amalekite battle

Read Exodus 17:1–16.

We continue our journey with the Israelites. Yahweh commanded them to move through a place called the wilderness of Sin and camp at a place called Rephidim.

There, they ran out of water to drink. (This was the second time they ran out of water. The first was in Genesis 15:22–25.) What would the people do? Would they humbly go to God for help? No, they didn’t. Their thirst overwhelmed their faith and they got angry with Moses and God!

Yahweh was testing His people again and the Bible says they were testing God. The Israelites were testing to see if God would respond to their urgent need. But hadn’t He already demonstrated again and again who He? He was their Father who had graciously saved them from Egypt and had given them food and water. Couldn’t they trust Him for more?

God instructed Moses to take his special staff and strike the rock that was somewhere along the base of Mount Sinai. When Moses struck the rock, there was a mighty gush of water enough for over two million people and their livestock.

Then Moses renamed that place. From then on, when the people used the name of that place, they would remember what had happened. Moses could have used a positive name like “The Waters of God” or “Water from the Rock”. But instead, he gave the place two negative names: “Massah” and “Meribah”. Massah means “to test” and the people would be reminded how they didn’t believe Yahweh’s goodness and had to test Him by demanding for water. And Meribah means “to argue”. Saying that name would remind the people how they argued with Moses, God’s representative. These weren’t good names at all! They would remind the Israelites of their lack of faith in God.

Next, Israel encountered their first battle where they had to actually fight the enemy. For reasons not explained, a people group called the Amalekites came to battle Israel. These people were named after their ancestor Amalek, who was the grandson of Esau, the older twin brother of Jacob (see Genesis 25:19–26 and Genesis 36:10–11). In other words, the Amalekites were distant relatives of the Israelites but they were hostile.

Moses chose a young man named Joshua to lead the battle. (Later on, we’ll see Joshua become Moses’ second-in-command.) While Joshua led the Israelite troops on the battlefield, Moses went to the top of a nearby hill.

The Hebrews prayed by lifting their arms up to God. So Moses lifted the special staff of God in both his hands. As long as his hands were up, Israel was winning the battle. But when he grew tired, the Amalekites gained the advantage. So Moses’ two companions, his brother Aaron, and another assistant named Hur, held up Moses’ arms. In this way, Moses’ arms were up all day and Joshua and the Israelite soldiers won the victory over the Amalekites.

Then Yahweh told Moses to write down this account of how He provided victory over the Amalekites. This was possibly the first instruction to record Scripture. Moses also thanked God for the victory by building an altar at the site and named it: “Yahweh is my banner.” The banner was the military flag that troops would raise so that other troops could identify them on the battlefield. Moses was declaring that Yahweh was their source of courage and strength and was fighting for His people. What a contrast to naming the water source “Massah” and “Meribah”.

What we can learn is that Yahweh was doing more than just leading Israel to the Promised Land. He was using the journey to grow the faith and spiritual maturity of Israel. God was purposely leading His people into challenging situations to test and grow them.

It is the same with us. Our life with God is a journey that involves more than just reaching a destination. If we aren’t growing in faith and obedience with each trial and challenge, then we are wasting our growth opportunities. And as we’re beginning to see, some of life’s challenges are caused by God so that we can grow up spiritually! God doesn’t spare His children from difficulties but He purposely puts in difficulties to stretch us.

Life with God also involves hard battles. Sometimes, God does all the fighting for us when we lack strength or resources (think of Israel’s escape from Egypt). Other times, God wants us to battle (think of Joshua battling the Amalekites). When we have to fight life’s battles, God is helping us grow spiritual muscle. So we mustn’t despair and think that God is not with us during these crises.

Notice also how Moses helped Joshua by lifting his hands in a prayer-like manner to God. And notice Aaron and Hur supporting Moses’ arms. Life’s battles are never fought without prayer to God. And life’s challenges need not be handled alone. Are we willing to support fellow believers through their battles? Will we pray for them? Will we offer practical assistance?

And if we are in the thick of battle, will we let fellow believers support us? If so, we need to let others in on our struggles so we are not alone. These fellow believers in Christ can pray for us and support us in practical ways. This way, we can all grow spiritual muscle.

The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 48

A prayer of Moses, the man of God

Read Psalm 90.

Today, we hop over to the book of Psalms. Besides writing the first five books of the Bible, Moses also wrote Psalm 90. Like many of the psalms, this one is a prayer. It is a prayer for Israel during the wilderness years after their escape from Egypt.

Moses began by affirming Israel’s relationship with Yahweh: “Through all the generations (of Israel), you have been our home!” Moses uses the word “home” or “dwelling place” to bring forth the warmth, intimacy and protection one feels when at home with one’s family. That is what living with God is like.

Then he spoke of Yahweh being the Creator of everything. He poetically referred to Yahweh giving birth to all of creation. The eternal Yahweh who is outside of time and space, is the One who made the universe.

And as the Creator-Owner of everything, He holds all His creatures accountable for how they relate to Him. Moses referred back to Genesis, to the creation of the first man and woman. As the all-righteous Creator, Yahweh had the right to declare a death sentence on Adam and Eve for their rebellion against Him. He had told Adam, “For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:19.)

In recalling this event, Moses was declaring that the all-righteous God holds all of creation accountable to Him. He acknowledged that no sin was hidden from Yahweh. God knows all that people think and do.

This was also true for Israel. When the nation was rebellious, Yahweh was distant from them and disciplined them. Moses pleaded for God to take pity on them, forgive them and restore the close fellowship that the nation enjoyed with Him.

Moses also contrasted the eternal nature of Yahweh with the brevity of mortal human life. While a thousand years is nothing compared to God’s eternal nature, the lifespan of a human is compared to grass that springs up in the freshness of the morning then dies by the end of the day. Mortal human life is a like a dream that disappears when one wakes up. Human life is very brief, even if one lives till 80. And all through life, there is pain and trouble. The only way to have a satisfying life is to recognise that the Creator-God is the only One who can satisfy all human longing. Therefore, all humans should turn to God.

Knowing God well, that is, understanding His character and what He is like is important if we are to have a good relationship with Him and a satisfying life. Moses recognised that nothing that we think, do or say can ever be hidden from the Creator-God of the universe. Our sins are “spread out” before God. It’s not that God is a policeman watching our every move, waiting for us to fail, but Moses is saying that we might as well be totally honest before God since He already knows how we are behaving. When we are honest before God and seek Him, He will respond. With God as our home, our safe dwelling place, life is more meaningful. How do we make God our home? What can we do each day to grow closer to God?

Also, we ought to realise how short our mortal lives are compared with eternity. This sobering thought should spur us to use our lives wisely. What are we investing our time and resources in?

We can ask ourselves, “In the light of eternity, is what I’m working on or worrying about really important?” Nothing is more meaningful and satisfying than seeking God, seeking what He wants for us, and seeking what He wants for the world.

The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 47

Yahweh provides for Israel’s daily needs

Read Exodus 16:1–36.

It’s been a month since Yahweh rescued Israel out of Egypt. He saved them from the ten plague judgments, saw them safely through the parting of the Red Sea, and destroyed the Egyptian army without any effort from the people. Imagine how these miracles could build one’s confidence in God.

And yet very quickly, the people start complaining again!

This time, the complaint was about the availability of food. They started to re-imagine their slave lives in Egypt as lives full of meat and bread. Instead of turning to God for help with this new challenge, they started wishing to go back to the past, even though the past had been extremely difficult.

Though they had brought livestock with them, they couldn’t eat all their animals at once. They would need an additional supply of daily food. This food situation was actually a deliberate test from Yahweh as He instructed them to camp in the wilderness. He gave them these small tests to let them practise obedience to Him.

He said He would provide meat and bread. The meat was in the form of quail. He would direct quail to settle into Israel’s camp. He also said He would provide a miraculous food. It would appear in the morning like dew but disappear soon after. The food looked like lumps of coriander seed; it tasted like a honeyed wafer; and it could be kneaded like dough to bake or boil. It was such a mysterious, miraculous food that the people called it, “What is it?” or “manna” in Hebrew.

These were God’s tests for them.

1. Each family was to collect just enough manna for the day and they could not keep any overnight.

2. There was to be no manna collection on the day of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was God’s gift of rest every seventh day of the week.

So the people had to gather new manna each day. And the Israelites could not gather extra even if they tried. On the sixth day, God told them to gather twice as much so that on the seventh day, the day of rest called the Sabbath, they could have food without having to gather or prepare the manna. God would ensure the manna wouldn’t go bad on the Sabbath.

These instructions were not hard to obey. After experiencing so much of Yahweh’s goodness and power, could they trust Him in day-to-day living?

The Israelites could choose to humbly obey God’s instructions. They could give thanks with grateful hearts for His daily provision. Or they could thoughtlessly and selfishly consume the provisions without any thankfulness. They could ignore His instructions and do what they thought best.

What was the result? Some of the Israelites disobeyed. These food tests were not dangerous, but they showed the people the state of their own hearts. When they tried to store manna for the next day or tried to collect food on the designated day of rest, their disobedient actions showed their faith was shallow and their trust in Yahweh was inconsistent.

Later, Yahweh instructed that a container of manna was to be kept as a reminder of His provision during these years in the wilderness. Later generations, when looking at the container of manna, would be reminded that their own existence was based upon Yahweh’s kind provision to their forefathers. Knowing their history with God would help them not just appreciate who God is, but how their lives were dependant upon Him.

We too can learn the same lesson. If we are mindful and thankful to God for His daily provision (the food and resources He provides, the security and safety, His wisdom and guidance, etc.), we will be more ready to acknowledge Him as the God of our lives and more ready to submit to His instructions on how to live.

From the Israelites we can also learn that a God-led victory over one major life challenge (like escaping from Egypt) doesn’t mean we’ve automatically conquered all of life’s challenges (like failure to obey the food instructions). But every victory builds our experience with God and allows us to go forward with stronger faith. But if we learn nothing from our life challenges, then we will keep facing the same fears and issues.

One other thing we can learn is that God didn’t explain how the manna worked. He just told them what to do and then told them to obey. Often, we want to know all the “whys” and “hows”. But these explanations sometimes don’t settle our hearts. We end up with more questions. What we can also do is to remember God’s track record in the Bible and in our lives, and then continue to trust God’s promises to us and remember the kind of God He is—a promise-making, promise-keeping God. Learning to trust God and His promises helps us to live in a calm, peaceful manner.

The Devotional Journey: Bible Tour Stop 5—Yahweh Builds a Nation

Yahweh has rescued Israel from Egypt and freed them from being slaves. In the next 20 readings, we will observe how God starts to transform a group of ex-slaves into a nation that represents Him, the Creator-God of the universe. Yahweh says He is Israel’s Father and Israel is His firstborn son. This indicates the kind of loving, intimate relationship He wants to have with them.

Thus, this is a time of nation building. Yahweh wants Israel to grow into spiritual maturity. He wants them to learn to trust Him in all aspects of life. He will provide safety in the wilderness; He will provide the food and water they need; He will protect them from enemies and lead them to military victories. He will lead them to the land He promised to give them. He will also test them, stretch them and train them so they have opportunity to exercise their faith and obedience in Him and grow in the process.

We will see how God formalises His relationship with Israel through the signing of another significant covenant: the Mosaic Covenant. This contract is different from others that God signed because under this covenant, the nation of Israel has obligations to obey. And if they obey His commands, Yahweh will bless the nation as a whole. On the other hand, if the people disobey, God will punish them, or curse them, so that they would realise how badly they are living and change their minds and return to Him.

God also gives instructions to Moses on how manage the people. Moses appoints other leaders to help settle cases of personal disputes. God gives detailed instructions on how to set up their camp and how to build and maintain the Tabernacle, which is the portable tent where they will come to worship Him. There are also instructions for how to dress the priests and what their responsibilities are. When the Tabernacle is completed, Yahweh’s presence fills it and so the people know He is with them.

We will also see the people’s failure in obeying God, with one dramatic incident when they worship their own man-made, hand-made idol shaped like a calf.

We’ll also see Yahweh explain that the only way to approach an all-righteous God is through sacrifice—a substitute animal dying in place of the guilty person. And the most significant demonstration of this truth is the special Day of Atonement that Yahweh puts in place. On this, the most solemn of festivals, the high priest will make sacrifices for the nation, to pay for the sins of all the people. This very visual reminder demonstrates what Yahweh will provide in order to cleanse the people of their sins and be reconciled to Him.

The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 46

Just stand still and let Yahweh fight for you

Read Exodus 13:17–14:31.
Israel was free to go! Though they were many in number, they were not yet a cohesive nation ready to do battle. They lacked confidence and unwavering commitment so Yahweh needed to build that up in them.

Taking the shorter route to the Promised Land would have meant they had to fight the hostile Philistines. So Yahweh led them on a detour, along a southeast route into the wilderness. He showed them where to go, guiding them with a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. This way, all the Israelites could see Him. There was no mistaking where Yahweh was directing them!

The people took with them Joseph’s remains. Joseph had faith that Yahweh would indeed settle the Israelites in the Promised Land so he had left instructions for his bones be taken along and buried in Israel. Would this later generation have the same unwavering faith as Joseph?

Then Yahweh did something unusual. He instructed Israel to camp along the shore of the Red Sea. By this time, Pharaoh realised the economic impact of losing this large labour force. He wanted them back! (This despite all that Egypt had suffered because of Yahweh, and despite how he had personally suffered the loss of his own son!)

To the Egyptians, it looked like the perfect opportunity to recapture Israel. If the Egyptians could block them off from the west, Israel would be trapped as the eastern side of their camp was by the sea.

When the Israelites saw the Egyptian army approaching, they immediately feared for their lives. It’s sad to see that their first reaction was not to turn to Yahweh who had already shown them His power. Instead, they let their fears run wild and they blamed Moses for their situation. This was a test of faith that God had placed on them and they weren’t doing very well.

In contrast, Moses was calm. He knew God was in charge and had set up this difficult situation. He told the people, “Yahweh Himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” (Exodus 14:14.)

And Yahweh did. He used the column of cloud to separate Egypt from Israel. Then as Moses raised his hand over the waters of the sea as instructed by God, Yahweh used a powerful wind to part the waters. He created a pathway through the sea, with a huge wall of water on the right and left. The pathway was dry and it was wide enough to let over two million Israelites pass through. All the people crossed the sea safely.

Then Yahweh let the Egyptians try to do the same. But He caused their chariots to get stuck and once all of Israel had crossed safely, God released the waters and it destroyed the entire Egyptian army.

Yahweh did all this for Israel because He had made an unconditional covenant with Abraham. But He was also doing this because He was demonstrating to Israel, Egypt and the world just who He was—the all-powerful Creator-God.

In our own lives, we may hear God clearly direct us down certain paths but when we follow His lead, it may seem that the situation gets worse! It could very well be that God wants to demonstrate who He is to us and to others aware of our circumstances. It is when we run out of ideas, resources or help that God can show Himself clearly. When we hear the call: “Just stand still and watch Yahweh rescue you today,” may we still our fears and our mouths and let God guide us out of the situation by His ways. Remember that unbelief leads to fear and complaints. But faith in God leads to obedience and brings glory to God.

Archaeological Note

Photo of “Ipuwer Papyrus” at the Leiden Museum. Public domain. Wikimedia Commons.

The historical records of Egypt that have been found say little about the Exodus. This is not surprising as ancient historians were reluctant to keep the memory of devastating defeats and often removed embarrassing accounts. But in 1828, the Leiden Museum in Holland acquired a papyrus which came from the city of Memphis in Egypt. It was written by a scribe named Ipuwer and gives a graphic description of conditions in Egypt at the time of the writing of the papyrus. The copy of the Ipuwer papyrus in the Leiden Museum appears to be a copy of the original. In reading the text, it sounds very much like an echo of the biblical account of Yahweh’s plague judgments on Egypt.

Here is the text:

Nay, but the heart is violent. Plague stalks through the land and blood is everywhere…. Nay, but the river is blood. Does a man drink from it? As a human he rejects it. He thirsts for water…. Nay, but gates, columns and walls are consumed with fire…. Nay but men are few. He that lays his brother in the ground is everywhere…. Nay but the son of the high-born man is no longer to be recognised…. The stranger people from outside are come into Egypt…. Nay, but the corn has perished everywhere. People are stripped of clothing, perfume and oil. Everyone says “there is no more.” The storehouse is bare…. It has come to this. The king has been taken away by poor men.

The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 45

Yahweh’s instructions on the Passover

Read Exodus 12:1–51.
With the Passover, Yahweh issued a new calendar for Israel—their first month would be that very month. That month aligns with March-April in our modern calendar. God was giving them a new identity as His people with this new religious calendar.

Then God gave instructions that the whole community of Israel had to obey on the tenth day of this first month.

Earlier, Yahweh had told Moses to tell Pharaoh that one last plague judgment would come upon the Egyptians: He was going to take away the lives of all firstborns in Egyptian households.

And now, God gave instructions for all Israel. If they obeyed fully, the firstborns of their households would live, and not die along with those of the Egyptian households.

Yahweh’s instructions were very specific. They were to:

• Choose a one-year old male lamb or goat without blemish (the size would be based on how much their household could eat).

• Keep the animal until the 14th day when they would kill it at twilight (for the Hebrews, twilight was between 3–5pm).

• Drain the blood from the animal.
  

• Take a bunch of hyssop, a shrub-like herb, and use it like a brush to smear the animal blood on the top and sides of the doorframes of their houses.

• Without breaking the bones, roast the entire animal over the fire.

• Eat the entire animal quickly with bitter green vegetables and bread made without yeast.

• Any meat left over must be burned. Nothing was to remain.

• The family must be dressed for travel when they eat.

• After eating, they must stay in the house all night without stepping outside.

This was the promise Yahweh made to the people of Israel: if they followed His instructions carefully, that night, when He took away the life of the firstborns of the Egyptian households, He would not take away the lives of the firstborns of the houses that had the blood of the animal on the doorposts.

Why did God command such an elaborate procedure? He was teaching some very important lessons about how He would offer mankind the opportunity to be saved from eternal separation from Him and eternal death. From this, the people would learn that:

1. There was no way they could save their firstborns from death unless they trusted God’s words.

2. Their firstborns could live if the blood of the animal was shed.

God was using this elaborate process to explain what would happen later on: those who put their trust in Him could live forever when the blood of Jesus was shed in their place. In other words, just as the animal died in place of the firstborn, Jesus would die in the place of mankind.

That night, there was death in every Egyptian household. But there was no death in any Israelite household. And as God had earlier predicted, Pharaoh did let the Israelites go. In fact, he ordered them out. And this was how Yahweh saved Israel from Egypt that day.

God told Moses that every year after that, Israel was to commemorate what He had done for them with two annual feasts.

The first feast was called the Passover. It would be celebrated on the 14th day of the first month. This was to remember the time Yahweh “passed over” their homes and did not take away the lives of their firstborns. This feast was to be a sacred holiday. Importantly, the Passover would be celebrated at each Israelite home. Parents were to teach their children about how Yahweh rescued their firstborns from death.

The second feast was called the Festival of Unleavened Bread. It would begin on the 15th day of the first month and it lasted seven days. This commemorated the time God rescued all Israel from Egypt. God told them that during these seven days, they must not have any yeast in their homes and must not eat bread with yeast. Why? For this festival, God used yeast to represent sin and corruption. He wanted them to physically remove yeast from their houses to represent a spiritual and inward removal of impurity from within them, leaving them with pure and clean hearts. Anyone who disobeyed by eating bread with yeast during this time would be removed from being part of the promises God made to Abraham.

In this account, we see how Yahweh spared the firstborns of Israel and rescued all of Israel from Egypt and then asked them to remember what He did for them through annual festivals. God established the kind of relationship He wanted to have with them. He was their Saviour and their help. And they were to continually remind themselves of who He is and what He had done for them.

Thinking about our own lives, God had rescued us from eternal death through Jesus. Let us remember often what He did for us and thank Him for saving us. Let us thank Him each time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Let us thank Him each time we commemorate Jesus’ birth and death. Let us thank Him each time we celebrate our birthdays. When else can we thank Him for all He’s done for us? Let us not forget but constantly remember with gratefulness in our hearts. Remembering what God has done for us keeps us humble before Him, grateful to Him, and continually creates in us an obedient heart towards God.

The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 44

And so you will know that I am Yahweh

Read Exodus 10:1–11:10.

We come to the final three plague judgments that Yahweh sent onto Egypt.

• Eighth: Locusts that devoured all the vegetation.

• Ninth: Thick darkness that lasted three days.
  

• Tenth: Death of all firstborn sons and animals.

Yahweh instructed the Israelites that they had to remember all He had done and they were to tell it to the next generation of the nation so they would know who Yahweh is. Every generation needed a right understanding of God in order to know Him, trust Him, love Him and obey Him.

Through the plague judgments, Yahweh said, “And so you will know that I am the Lord.” (Exodus 10:2.) What did the people learn about Yahweh?

• He is utterly unique and separate from all of creation.

• He is active in His creation, intimately directing the affairs of mankind and the world.

• As the all-righteous God, He desires the worship of His people (as He deserves).

• As the Creator-Owner of all, He demands the obedience of all creatures.

When Moses announced the plague of locusts, Pharaoh’s officials panicked. They urged their king to release the Israelites to avoid further destruction of their country. Pharaoh appeared to listen to them but in negotiating with Moses on the details, he changed his mind again. Once more, his pride made him stubborn.

So Yahweh demonstrated His control over nature yet again. He used the east wind to blow in the locusts. The insects ate all the remaining vegetation in the country. Then He used the west wind to blow the locusts away into the Red Sea.

With the next plague judgment, Yahweh made a darkness so thick, one could feel it. This caused Pharaoh to summon Moses. The king gave Moses permission to leave but demanded that they leave their animals behind. He was still trying to show he had some level of authority! But Moses refused—all Israel and all their animals must be allowed to leave.

Pharaoh’s refusal led to the tenth plague judgment. In their final meeting, Pharaoh unintentionally foretold how the plague judgments would end. He told Moses to never come back to see him again. And this statement turned out to be true, but not in the way he expected. Pharaoh made the death threat to Moses but it would be Moses who would survive the confrontation.

Since Yahweh was in control of the events, He told Moses that the tenth plague judgment would be the final one and after that, Pharaoh would drive Israel out of Egypt. In preparation for leaving, God instructed the Hebrews to ask the Egyptians for silver and gold. God was providing financial compensation for all the years of unpaid slave labour! The Egyptians would do it because Yahweh had already caused them to look favourably upon Moses and the Israelites.

The threat to kill the firstborn was very significant. The firstborn son in any family was the main heir of the family fortune and would become responsible for the family. The firstborn of the king ensured that his dynasty and kingdom would continue. So the death of the firstborn would be a devastating disaster!

Yahweh said that this plague judgment would reach every level of Egypt: from the king to the lowliest servant. Even their remaining animals would be affected. This plague judgment would wreck the nation for years to come. And to make its effects even more devastating on Egypt, the sons of Israel would be spared.

Today’s reading ends with Exodus 11:9–10 which is a summary of all that has happened. When we think back through the months of plague judgments, we see God patiently revealing Himself to both Israel and Egypt. When Pharaoh continued to harden his heart and remain stubborn, God increased the intensity of the judgments. These supernatural events should have produced humility, repentance and submission to Yahweh. But Pharaoh hardened his heart to the point where God had to act decisively against him.

Among many things we can learn, there are three key points.

1. God fights for His people in His way and at His timing. His people have to obey and be patient.

2. Though God is very merciful, He does not hesitate to act against evil when the limits of His tolerance have been crossed. When after many months, Pharaoh continued in his pride and rebellion, God judged him firmly. May we understand the dangers of pride from this sobering event and learn how to be humble.

3. Teaching about God to the next generation is critical. What we learn about God is not meant to be kept to ourselves. Starting with our own children, we are to tell them and others about who Yahweh is and what He has done. God’s intention is that all creation learns about the Creator so they can have a right attitude towards Him and come to a right relationship with Him. This will give them a right attitude towards life.

Think about these three key points and let them shape our thinking and actions.

The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 43

Yahweh’s judgments on Egypt continue

Read Exodus 8:20–9:35.

Yahweh continued with the plague judgments on Pharaoh and Egypt.

• Fourth: Flies all over Egypt, except the area of Goshen where the Israelites lived.

• Fifth: Death to Egyptian livestock but the animals of Israel were spared.

• Sixth: Painful boils on the Egyptians and their animals.

Seventh: Hail that destroyed people, livestock, the crops of Egypt, but nothing and no one in Goshen was harmed.

Plagues were not unknown in Egypt. The Egyptians were familiar with epidemics and natural disasters. But the timing, nation-wide scale and increasing intensification of each plague judgment (from mere nuisance to life-threatening) made it clear that what was happening was not natural, but supernatural—it was the work of Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews.

As we observe Yahweh sending plague after plague over the course of many months, we see that God was teaching both Egypt and Israel just who He is and what He is like. He was demonstrating that He alone is the true and living God. At the same time, He was exposing the Egyptian gods for what they were—nothing but hand-made, man-made idols from the Egyptians’ imagination.

The Israelites were living in the area of Goshen and since God was in complete control of the plague judgments, He spared them from harm. They must have begun to see that their God was really fighting for them and they didn’t have to worry or be afraid.

The fifth plague was dangerous for Egypt because their animals died. Pharaoh sent men to investigate and was shocked to learn only Egyptian animals died and not the animals belonging to the Hebrews. But this shock did not translate to true respect, or fear of Yahweh, for Pharaoh remained stubborn. It is very sobering when we see someone come to realise who is the true Creator-God of the universe but then refuse to take the step of obedience. Pharaoh’s dawning recognition of who Yahweh is did not lead to repentance (that is, a change of mind). What pride!

For the sixth plague judgment, God instructed Moses to take soot from a kiln and throw it into the air. The irony is that soot or ash was used by the Egyptians to make soap. Now God used the soot to cause painful boils to break out on all of them. Indeed Yahweh was overpowering every aspect of their lives. Yet Pharaoh continued to be stubborn.

By now, Moses and the rest of Israel must have been wondering if Israel would ever be freed. But Yahweh was in full control. He said that it was no trouble for Him to destroy Egypt with just one plague, but He was exercising patience by working on Pharaoh slowly, giving the king plenty of time and multiple opportunities to repent.

For the seventh plague judgment, God sent terrible hail to wreck the crops, the livestock that hadn’t died from the earlier plagues, and also the people. This judgment came with a warning and this time, some of the Egyptians believed God’s word and responded! They brought in their servants and animals from the fields to save them from the unrelenting hailstorm.

The level of devastation was significant. Pharaoh said, “This time I have sinned. The LORD is the righteous one.” (Exodus 9:27.) But his acknowledgement of Yahweh’s power was shallow because it didn’t lead to obedience. He quickly returned to his stubborn state as soon as God lifted the plague. When was he going to learn that one cannot fight against God and win?

Through these series of plague judgments, we see that though Yahweh is all-powerful, He is also merciful. It reminds us that in our own lives, as God carefully works out His purposes in and through us, we must remember to be patient as His deliberate, unhurried actions are done for a reason. And this is one of those reasons: He uses His actions to get people to learn about Him and recognise Him as the one and only true Creator-God.

Like Israel had been, if we are in a difficult situation, can we have a patient attitude and allow God to carefully work out His purposes in our lives and reveal Himself to us and to those who are watching us? Let us pray and ask God to help us trust Him even when He doesn’t seem to be doing things according to the timing that we wish for.

And unlike Pharaoh, when we know God is asking us to take certain actions, may our hearts not harden against Him but that we move forward in obedience.

The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 42

Yahweh’s judgments on Egypt begins

Read Exodus 7:1–8:19.

We pick up right where we left off, with Moses concerned that he wouldn’t be able to speak boldly to Pharaoh. But Yahweh responded by saying that Moses, as God’s representative, and Aaron, as Moses’ representative, would do their jobs well because it was Him who was actually doing the work through them.

Yahweh highlights the helplessness of Israel and the frailty of His chosen leaders (Moses was 80 and Aaron was 83!). He contrasted Israel’s weakness with the power of Egypt and the might of its king. Egypt was the superpower at that time. God was demonstrating how He could achieve His goals even with the weakest of people. All He required was humble, obedient hearts.

Another point is the interplay between God’s sovereignty and Pharaoh’s free will, as seen in the phrase: “harden Pharaoh’s heart”. In Exodus chapters 7 to 14, this phrase is used 17 times! Nine times Pharaoh hardened his own heart and eight times Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Who was actually hardening Pharaoh’s heart? Was Yahweh doing the hardening? Yes. Was Pharaoh hardening his own heart? Yes! How could this be?

God was intervening in a situation that was already evil. Yahweh didn’t make “good” Pharaoh turn “bad”. Pharaoh was a proud, unrepentant sinner who refused to listen to Yahweh and who refused to keep the promises he made to Israel. Every time Yahweh presented Pharaoh with more revelation about Himself and offered him the opportunity to make a choice, Pharaoh could freely obey or disobey. Over the course of months, Yahweh would give him more than enough evidence to show He was the true Creator-God of the universe and that the gods of Egypt were all false. But Pharaoh rejected God every time and when he did, he made his own heart harder against Yahweh. Pharaoh had trained himself to rebel against the Creator-God.

Mankind has human responsibility over their free-will decisions while at the same time, Yahweh exercises divine sovereignty over history. God respects the free will He has given mankind and can still guide history towards the goal He has in mind. We can see that mankind’s choices are real because the consequences are real.

In today’s reading, we read how Yahweh performed three miraculous plague judgments against Egypt:

• First: Turning all the waters of Egypt, particularly the Nile, into blood.

• Second: Sending frogs over all the land.

• Third: Sending gnats (or lice) over the land.

Yahweh was demonstrating He is the true God with these judgments. Each plague was a specific blow to Egypt and its false gods. For example, the Egyptians had several gods of the Nile like Khnum, Hapi and Osiris. None of these idols could stop Yahweh from turning the Nile into blood.

The Egyptians also worshipped gods who supposedly had power over frogs but these false gods could not stop Yahweh from covering the land with frogs. The Egyptians, especially their priests, were very particular about cleanliness, so God overwhelmed them with filthy gnats or lice. Their gods couldn’t stop Yahweh.

Pharaoh’s magicians were priests who practised satanic powers. They could mimic some of these miraculous signs. We see that Satan opposes God’s work by imitating it. In this way, Satan minimises the power and glory of Yahweh. But if the magicians were truly powerful, they would have reversed the plagues rather than just mimicked them. The truth was they were limited in their satanic powers and were not like Yahweh at all.

With these first three plague judgments, the effects caused distress but not much more. As we read on, we will see that because Pharaoh and Egypt didn’t respond positively to Yahweh, subsequent plagues would be more painful, costly, dangerous and then destructive. The longer sinners resist God and refuse to hear His Word, the “louder” He has to speak to them through His judgments.

Thinking of our own lives, what does it mean to harden our hearts? It means to see the evidence of God at work and still refuse to accept His Word and submit to His will. It means to resist God by being ungrateful and disobedient and not having any fear of Yahweh’s judgment. Hardhearted people echo Pharaoh’s words: “Who is Yahweh that I should obey Him?” (Exodus 5:2.)

We need to understand that while God directs our lives, we are responsible for the choices that we make. God does not treat us like robots. Rather, He interacts with the choices we make. We reap the benefits of good choices and suffer the consequences of bad ones.

So let us as believers in Yahweh, choose not to harden our hearts against Him. Let us pray that God will help us always have soft, humble and teachable hearts before Him.

The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 41

Yahweh reassures Moses and prepares him

Read Exodus 6:1–30.

What a setback it must have been for Moses, the elders, the work foremen and indeed, all Israel when Pharaoh not only refused to let them go but made their lives worse. But Yahweh was just starting His work of rescuing them.

How did God encourage His struggling servant? Yahweh spoke audibly to Moses and gave him great promises. He said, “I am the LORD” (“I am Yahweh”) four times. He was the great “I AM” who made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give them the land of Canaan. He said, “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty’—but I did not reveal my name, Yahweh, to them.” (Exodus 6:2.)

What did God mean by that? We know He had used His personal name—Yahweh—since at least the time of Adam and Eve’s grandson, Enosh. For example, Genesis 4:26 says, “When Seth grew up, he had a son and named him Enosh. At that time people first began to worship the LORD [Yahweh] by name.”

So the name Yahweh was not unknown to Moses’ ancestors. What God meant was that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had not yet fully experienced Yahweh fulfilling His promises to them. But it would be Moses’ generation and the next who would really experience the power of Yahweh as the promise-keeping God. They would know Yahweh more intimately than their ancestors did.

Seven times Yahweh said, “I will.” (Count them in verses 6–8.) He gave details of what He was going to do for Israel. At the heart of His promises was this: “I will claim you as my own people, and I will be your God.” Yahweh assured Israel they were in the centre of His plan. Rescuing them would be His responsibility. Moses could cling to His promises and experience peace, confidence and courage in the battles of life.

Then the account is seemingly interrupted by the family history or genealogy of Moses and Aaron. This is not an accident but rather, it was Yahweh’s way of reminding the reader (and that includes us) that God had chosen Moses and Aaron specifically for their task.

The way that the Hebrews identified themselves was through their family tree. Moses and Aaron had to be legitimate spokespersons for Israel. In other words, they had to be true Israelites and so the genealogy in this chapter proved this. Notice how the genealogy started and ended with God’s command for them to lead the people (verses 13 and 26–29).

Though reading the genealogy may seem like just reading a list of names of fathers and sons, the specific names show us that God is a meticulous record keeper. In many parts of the Bible, very few words are used to describe major events. God is very economical in His writing. So when He slows down to record the lists of family ties, we should recognise He is recording the real history of real people who lived lives of real consequences.

Reading about the family tree of Moses reminds us that though we may be one among billions of people, the Creator-God of the universe is keenly and intimately interested in each and every one of us and the details of our lives.

And thanks to Moses and the prophets after him, we have the written Word of God where we can read about God’s great promises to us. We can always find encouragement through God’s great promises to us.

For example, Philippians 4:6–7 says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

When we are faced with worry, God invites us to go to Him in prayer and share what is on our hearts and minds. He wants to comfort us, encourage us and sometimes even help us see things from His perspective instead of from our own human perspective. Remember, we have a real relationship with the God of the universe. And He can give us peace even in the midst of life’s challenges.

When we stand on God’s promises like this, life may not suddenly become easier, but we wouldn’t be in despair or a state of hopelessness, as if we were alone in our challenges. Like Moses, we can learn the lesson that when we are in despair, we can share our feelings with God, cling to God’s promises, and do what God tells us to do, and trust Him for the outcome.

The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 40

Yahweh sends His deliverer

Read Exodus 4:18–5:23.

How does one go about packing up and moving towards danger? That’s exactly what Yahweh told Moses to do. Yahweh reassured Moses that those who had wanted him dead were now gone. But God also told him in advance of Pharaoh’s negative reaction so Moses knew he had a battle ahead. God said of Pharaoh, “I will harden his heart.” This phrase will be repeated multiple times in the next few chapters. But this does not mean that Yahweh forced Pharaoh’s heart to be hard by taking away Pharaoh’s free will.

• Pharaoh had free will. Each time Moses presented Pharaoh with a choice to listen to Yahweh or not, Pharaoh could decide what he would do. He was responsible for his choices.

• But Yahweh was also responsible for hardening Pharaoh’s heart because He would present Pharaoh with decisions he had to make. Because Pharaoh would consistently harden his heart against Yahweh by making negative choices, it could be said that God was also responsible for hardening Pharaoh’s heart.

It wouldn’t be easy to convince Pharaoh to let his Hebrew slaves go free. Moses didn’t explain the whole situation to his father-in-law, Jethro (his other name was Reuel), but received his blessing before he left with his wife Zipporah and two sons, Gershom and Eliezer.

Note Yahweh’s special love for Israel. He called the nation His firstborn son. In the ancient world, the firstborn son in every family had special responsibilities to look after the family. Along with that came special privileges and rights. In referring to Israel as His firstborn son, Yahweh was indicating Israel’s special role among the nations. Since Egypt was going after Yahweh’s firstborn son, He would now go after Egypt’s firstborns. God was reminding Moses that he was serving the Creator-God who knew how to resolve Israel’s difficult situation. The key to victory would be faith in God.

But along the journey to Egypt, something strange happened. God struck Moses with a very serious illness. Why? From the Bible’s words, we can deduce that Moses must have circumcised his firstborn son, Gershom, but not Eliezer. But circumcision was a sign of the Abrahamic Covenant, and if Moses wasn’t fully obedient to Yahweh in this matter, how could he lead Israel? Zipporah must have realised this and therefore circumcised the other son, Eliezer, as well. Only after this, Moses recovered. God wanted Moses to be fully obedient before he could take on this significant job of leading God’s people.

Yahweh had sent Moses’ elder brother Aaron to meet him at Mount Horeb (another name for Sinai). Once Moses explained everything, the two brothers headed to Egypt. There, they gathered the elders of Israel, showed them the miraculous signs and explained what Yahweh was going to do. The elders believed and worshipped God. Worship is the right response of God’s people to His grace.

When the brothers approached Pharaoh, they began by asking for permission for all of Israel to go on a three-day journey to worship their God. Perhaps they were testing Pharaoh to see how far he was willing to negotiate. Pharaoh’s response was not surprising: “Who is Yahweh?” The Egyptians considered Pharaoh himself a god, so why would the god of Egypt listen to the god of mere slaves? What’s more, if Pharaoh agreed to this request, he would be losing the working days of all his slaves. And he would also be acknowledging the request of a powerless god!

Moses also mentioned that the Israelites might be in danger of being killed if they failed to obey Yahweh. By saying this, Moses was hinting to Pharaoh that Yahweh’s demands were not to be taken lightly and that their God was powerful.

But in his pride, Pharaoh responded negatively. He made life harder for the Israelite slaves. Their job was to make clay bricks for his building projects. Clay was mixed with straw (the leftover stalks of the grain harvest) and baked in the sun. Now he denied them their supply of straw but maintained their quotas!

The Israelite foremen went to appeal to Pharaoh. Instead of going to Pharaoh, they should have gone to Moses and Aaron for help. They should have reminded themselves of Yahweh’s promises and appealed to Him. God’s people need to remember that their first source of help is the One who can truly provide help—Yahweh, the Creator-God of the universe. But no, the people complained about God’s will and criticised God’s leaders. This complaining nature would be characteristic of Israelites for the next 40 years. Instead of enjoying close fellowship with Yahweh and reaping the blessings of that close fellowship, they suffered more instead. Truly, this is a lesson for us—we must not have a complaining attitude but always go to God in humbleness.

Now consider Moses’ response. He said to God, “Why did you send me?” It was a complaint but he was taking his problem straight to God. Yahweh is not afraid of honest conversation and hard talk. And Moses was not afraid to bring his distress and disappointment to God. From this we can learn something about our relationship with God. He is interested in an authentic relationship. He is ready to listen even when we come to Him complaining. Unlike the elders, who went to the wrong authority for resolution, Moses went back to Yahweh first. God’s chosen servants must expect opposition and misunderstanding as they go about God’s work. But God’s servants can also rely on God for a solution. The key is to be humble before God and rest on His promises, especially when things seem very wrong.

In our daily challenges, whom do we go to first? Do we prayerfully seek God’s help first? Or are we more attracted to human solutions? Pray and ask God to help us come to Him first in all matters.

The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 39

Yahweh calls Moses into service

Read Exodus 3:1–4:17.

Moses spent 40 years as a shepherd in Midian (Acts 7:24; Exodus 7:7). During those years, he must have thought about Yahweh and the suffering of his people in Egypt. Then Yahweh got Moses’ attention by engulfing an insignificant bush with fire. But the bush didn’t actually burn—that’s why it caught Moses’ attention.

God assured Moses that He was the God of his ancestors—Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Whenever these three names were mentioned together, God was bringing to mind His covenant with them—He had promised to give them specific land in the Middle East. He was ready to deliver Israel out of Egypt and lead them into the Promised Land, and Moses was God’s chosen leader to do that.

Moses asked for God’s personal name. It’s not that he didn’t know God’s personal name—Yahweh. It was already familiar to Moses’ ancestors (for example, Genesis 4:26, 14:22, 15:1–2, 25:21–22, 28:13). Moses was really asking, “What kind of a God are you? What does your name mean?”

God explained that Yahweh means “I AM who I AM.” His name means He is the self-existent One who does not need anything. Rather, He enables all things to exist. His name means He is present with His people; and His name means He is the faithful and dependable God who acts.

Yahweh knows the beginning from the end and so He told Moses what would happen. The elders would accept Moses as their leader and believe that Yahweh would deliver them. Pharaoh would refuse to let the Israelites go, and so all Egypt would suffer terrible judgments from God. Finally, Israel would not only be delivered from Egypt, but receive the riches of Egypt as wages for all their years of slavery. Then Israel would receive the land that God promised them.

This was exciting news of a guaranteed good outcome for Israel. But Moses became frightened by the job and made excuses. He made the mistake of looking at himself instead of looking to Yahweh. The God who made us is able to use the gifts and abilities He’s given us to accomplish the tasks He assigns to us.

Moses was acting like he could not be used by God. But Yahweh was saying He would do all the hard work and Moses only had to obey Him. At this point in time, Moses was expressing a hollow humility. True humility is thinking only of God’s glory and God’s will rather than about one’s inadequacy.

But God reassured Moses by giving him the ability to do miraculous signs. Turning his staff into a snake was significant. The symbolism was clear—the serpent had been used by Satan in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1) and the serpent featured heavily in Egyptian religion. Moses’ mastery over the serpent was a sign of Yahweh’s mastery of Satan and the gods of Egypt.

Despite these signs, Moses protested again about being a poor communicator. Moses called Yahweh “lord” but refused to obey His orders. We can often identify with this attitude. We acknowledge Yahweh as our lord, but we often refuse to obey the instructions found in His Word. If Yahweh isn’t Lord of all parts of our lives, then He isn’t Lord at all!

Now angry with Moses, Yahweh told him that He had chosen his brother Aaron to be Moses’ spokesperson. Later events would prove that Moses was very capable of speaking God’s words both to Israel and to Pharaoh. In future readings, we’ll see Moses delivering some of the most powerful speeches.

Here’s the lesson for us: God knows us better than we know ourselves. We need to trust and obey when He tells us what to do. We can’t surprise Him by telling Him about our weaknesses—He knows them already. We need to realise that God will never lead us where His power can’t enable us to do what He wants. We need to learn again and again how to walk by faith in His promises.

Think about what God has laid upon your heart to do. Do you feel inadequate, ill-equipped or not ready? Do you think God has called upon the wrong person for the task? Seeing the example of Moses, can you take these concerns to God to ask for His strength, wisdom and courage? God never picks the wrong person. And God can help you to take the first step in faith.

The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 38

Yahweh’s people need deliverance

Read Exodus 1:1–2:25.

When Adam and Eve sinned, Yahweh had immediately announced a salvation plan (Genesis 3:15). The Bible is the record of God’s unfolding plan and the second book, called Exodus (which means “departure”), continues the account.

Yahweh had told Abraham his descendants would be enslaved in a foreign country for 400 years but He had would lead them out at the right time (Genesis 15:12–14). It turned out that Egypt was that foreign country.

After several generations of Egyptian kings, a new Pharaoh who had no appreciation of Joseph had risen to power. He viewed the Israelites (also known as the Hebrews and much later on, the Jews) as a threat. To control them, he began a programme of oppression and genocide.

Step 1: Pharaoh enslaved them to wear them down with harsh labour.

Step 2: He ordered the chief Hebrew midwives to kill newborn Hebrew boys.

Step 3: He ordered Egyptians to drown newborn Hebrew boys.

What Pharaoh didn’t realise was that he was part of the conflict announced in Genesis 3:15, where the people of God would constantly be warring with the “children” of Satan (that is, those influenced by Satan). This conflict still continues today.

Because of this continuing spiritual conflict, the Hebrews have suffered tremendously. But every ruler that has persecuted the Hebrews has been punished because God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 is still in force: “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt.”

Then the account of Exodus focuses on one couple—Amram and Jochebed, the parents of Moses. (Their names are mentioned in Exodus 6:20.) Moses was the third child after Miriam and Aaron. When he was born, his parents did their best to hide him. But after three months, this became impossible.

So they placed him in the Nile river in a waterproof basket near where Pharaoh’s daughter had come for a ceremonial washing ritual. She heard the crying baby and had him taken out of the water.

Sensing the princess’s willingness to save him, Miriam, who had been hiding nearby, offered to get a wet-nurse to care for the baby. The princess agreed and thus Moses was reunited with his mother who was paid to look after her own baby!

After some years, Jochebed presented her son to the princess who named him Moses. She gave him a royal upbringing (Acts 7:22 mentions this) but since he had spent his early years with his real family, he had learnt about Yahweh and the history of his people.

Then the account jumps to when he was older (Acts 7:23 says he was 40). Moses, as an Egyptian prince, went to see the Hebrew slaves. It must have aroused his sense of injustice to see the Egyptian slave masters treat his people cruelly.

He intervened when he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew severely. Though he knew it was wrong, he killed the Egyptian. The next day, he mediated between two arguing Hebrews but they rebuffed him, asking if he was going to kill them like he did the Egyptian. That’s when Moses realised that what he had done was not secret. And indeed, it wasn’t long before Pharaoh ordered his execution and so Moses fled Egypt. He must have been devastated that he couldn’t free his people despite being in a position of authority. But man’s ways are not Yahweh’s ways.

There in the desert region, Moses showed his courage again by intervening in a dispute between the daughters of Reuel and some shepherds at a well for watering livestock. Moses was invited to the home of Reuel. (He was also known as Jethro. See Exodus 3:1.) His family were Midianites, distant relatives of Moses. (Their ancestor Midian was a son of Abraham from Abraham’s second wife Keturah. See Genesis 25:1–2.)

This hospitality eventually led to marriage with one of the daughters, Zipporah, and she bore him a son, Gershom. (Later, she had a second son named Eliezer. See Exodus 18:4.)

Though life seemed to have taken a different turn for Moses, the Bible is letting us know this was Yahweh’s way of preparing His chosen man for the big job ahead. For the next 40 years (see Acts 7:29–30) God had Moses take care of stubborn sheep in the wilderness. This was training to take care of Yahweh's special flock—Israel. Like Joseph’s 17 years as a slave, Moses’ 40 years of work prepared him. God doesn’t just grab hold of a believer and give them a job; rather He take times to train them.

Are you feeling like Moses? Perhaps you have a sense that God has plans for you but your life is currently not going anywhere. Perhaps your current life situation is challenging and you see no end to the difficulties.

God has reasons for delays. He hears our groans, sees our plight and feels our pains. But what He has promised, He will perform for He is a promise-keeping God. But things will be done at His timing. And when the right time comes, He will act. In the mean time, we must be like Moses. Even in the “wilderness”, we can learn and grow in our spiritual journey. Let’s not waste the situations we find ourselves in.

The Devotional Journey: Bible Tour Stop 4—Yahweh Leads Israel Out

Now we will continue our journey through Yahweh's history with the second book of the Bible: Exodus. In the opening of Exodus, four hundred years have passed since the time of Joseph and Jacob. In that time, Abraham’s descendants have grown into a nation of about 2.5 million.

We will see that though Joseph and his family were well regarded by the Pharaoh of their time, four hundred years later, the current Pharaoh viewed Jacob’s descendants as a threat and he made them his slaves. He put them to harsh labour and the people were suffering.

The descendants of Jacob, now called Hebrews or the Israelites, were wondering if Yahweh had forgotten them. But He had not. Rather, He had been waiting for the right moment to move His plan forward. And now that right circumstances were in place, God made His move. He called one Hebrew into service—Moses.

Initially saved from an order to be killed, Moses ended up being brought up by Pharaoh’s daughter. Then in a dramatic series of events, Moses was directed by Yahweh to become the leader of Israel, to lead them out of Egypt and into the land God had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses began as a reluctant leader and God had to work with him to become the leader God wanted him to be.

We will see Yahweh use a series of judgment plagues to judge Pharaoh and the Egyptians. This series of supernatural judgments not only moved His plan forward, but also taught Israel, Egypt and the surrounding nations that He was the One and only, true Creator-God of the universe.

The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 37

Yahweh intended it for good

Read Genesis 49:29–50:26.

In today’s reading, we see that both Jacob and Joseph believed Yahweh to the very end. Before Jacob died, he requested to be buried in the cave in the field of Machpelah, where Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Leah were buried. He never doubted that God intended for the land to belong to Abraham’s descendants and he wanted to return there.

When he died, Joseph wept. Pharaoh declared an official mourning period in Egypt. He also ordered his high officials to accompany Joseph when he returned to Canaan to bury his father. These actions showed his high regard for Joseph. All but the youngest children in Jacob’s family went for the funeral.

There, Joseph led another week of mourning in Canaan. When someone we love dies, it is normal to grieve. God gave us emotions, and tears are appropriate in showing grief. While abnormal, prolonged grieving can paralyse a person, not taking time to grieve can also make it difficult for people to heal.

While it is important to take stock of a beloved family member’s life and honour the deceased, there comes a time when we have to return to life and all its duties. This doesn’t mean we forget the deceased, but it means we put life into perspective and recognise that the living must go on with the business of living. The best way to honour the dead is to live well before God.

Now that Jacob was dead, Joseph’s brothers were worried that Joseph might try to get revenge. They were doubting Joseph’s character and letting their fears overwhelm them.

The way they were behaving was similar to believers who are constantly worrying about God’s love for them. With every mistake they make, they wonder whether God still loves them. Where can such believers get assurance of God’s love for them?

Has not God given us His unchanging Word where He explains how every believer is justified through faith in Christ and will forever be a child of His? Will we not trust His Word?

Joseph’s brothers were too scared to speak to him but sent a message. How did Joseph respond? He wept! He was deeply hurt that his brothers didn’t believe his words or actions over the years. Hadn’t they been in Egypt now for 17 years and experienced nothing but love and care from him?

Are we like that with God? The Bible tells us that God forgave all our sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. And the Bible assures us that God is ready to forgive us if we do wrong but then approach Him for forgiveness. This is what 1 John 1:9 says: “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” God uses His Word to assure us.

Joseph also used words to assure his brothers. “Don’t be afraid of me… You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.” And he reassured them: “No, don’t be afraid. I will continue to take care of you and your children.”

Joseph had God’s perspective. Yes, his brothers had made an evil decision. He didn’t downplay what they did. Their actions caused him years of suffering. But Joseph recognised that God had also worked to save the family through those very same events. Joseph could see God working behind the scenes of his brothers’ past actions. And so he could truly forgiven them.

Some believers think it is some kind of special humility to remain fearful and insecure about their justification. But this is actually a refusal to take God at His Word. Can God be trusted? Does He lie? Does He keep His promises? Even at this early stage in biblical history, can we not see that God can be completely relied upon? Joseph’s brothers had lived under a cloud of worry. But it was a waste of emotional energy.

Let’s not live in this way. Let us stand firm on God’s Word just as Joseph did. He only had God’s promises from the two visions he received. And he was isolated for years without a community of Yahweh believers. But his faith never faltered and God didn’t disappoint him.

Some two hundred years earlier, God had promised Abraham that his descendants would bless the nations. Joseph's life was not what he had expected, but through him, God blessed the nations by saving them all from the severe famine.

If we follow God's leading, we may be surprised by how He can use us to be a blessing to others.

The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 36

Yahweh brings all of Jacob’s family into Egypt

Read Genesis 46:1–47:31.

Jacob had settled in Canaan, the land that Yahweh had promised Abraham. But now Joseph was calling him to live in Egypt. Jacob hesitated because his grandfather Abraham had gotten into trouble when he went to Egypt because of an earlier famine. And Yahweh had stopped his father Isaac from going to Egypt (Genesis 26:1–2).

Jacob started the journey but then stopped at the southern edge of Canaan, in the town of Beersheba. This town was significant to his family: Abraham named the town Beersheba after digging a well there (Genesis 21:30–31); Isaac had lived there and Yahweh had appeared to Isaac there (Genesis 26:23, 32–33).

Jacob was showing awareness of Yahweh’s dealings with his family and he offered sacrifices to God there. Yahweh appeared to him in a vision to tell him it was all right to go to Egypt. In fact, it was part of His promise to grow Abraham’s family into a great nation. Yahweh was demonstrating that He was God not just over Canaan, but over all the earth.

Why Egypt? The first reason was obvious: God had arranged it such that through Joseph, Egypt had food for them. Second, and more importantly, being in Egypt at this point in their family life would keep them away from the evil influence of Canaan. We have already seen the troubles that Abraham’s family got themselves into when mingling with the Canaanites. Egypt was a discriminatory society and the Egyptians would not want to mingle with foreigners. This would keep Jacob’s family focused on Yahweh.

So God gave Jacob the assurance that his family would grow great in number and he would die in the presence of his beloved son, Joseph. Jacob must have realised that God was at work in his family and so he went to Egypt.

Jacob also showed his trust in his fourth son Judah by asking him to guide the family to Joseph. This suggested that the brothers had made peace with their father regarding what happened to Joseph and their relationships were now restored.

Joseph met his family in the land of Goshen, the northeast part of the Nile delta, an area that was very fertile and excellent for grazing livestock. There was an emotional reunion between Jacob and his favourite son. In this way, Joseph’s visions from years ago were now fulfilled.

In introducing his family to Pharaoh, Joseph carefully selected five of his brothers to present to Pharaoh. He advised his brothers to emphasise talking about their herds of cattle and not the sheep for the Egyptians despised shepherds. Joseph’s wise counsel resulted in a good meeting with Pharaoh and Pharaoh even requested that Joseph’s brothers take care of his cattle. This was quite an honour for the sons of Jacob.

When Jacob met with Pharaoh, he did not hesitate to bless Pharaoh in the name of Yahweh though he knew Pharaoh was not a Yahweh worshipper. In doing this, Jacob was a good example of how a believer can relate to those outside the family of God. Similarly, we can offer to pray for others, or take care of others, letting them know we are doing so because we are followers of the God of the Bible.

The Bible lists the family members of Jacob in great detail. We are reminded that these were real people, with real relationships and real issues. But God was overseeing this family and had brought them into safety in Egypt, where as He had promised Abraham, He would grow them into a nation!

Then we are told what happened in the remaining years of the famine. As the people in Egypt and Canaan ran out of money to buy food, they traded their animals for food. When that ran out, they traded their land and finally sold themselves as Pharaoh’s servants! In the end, Pharaoh grew extremely wealthy and powerful! Pharaoh was not a Yahweh worshipper, yet God could work through him to care for Jacob and his family. We see that God can fulfil His plans not just through those who trust Him, but also through those who don’t acknowledge Him at all. Yahweh truly is the Creator-God of everyone and has the sovereign ability to work out His plans. His good plans will never be thwarted by evil human choices.

In thinking of our own life situations, we can also turn to Him for help. We may feel stuck and helpless, but the same God who guided Joseph, Jacob and their family, is ever ready to guide us as well. Let us learn to seek Him constantly.

The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 35

Yahweh’s plans unfold for Jacob’s family

Read Genesis 44:1–45:28.

When the brothers left Joseph, they had every reason to celebrate. They hadn’t been arrested for stealing the grain money; Simeon had been released; Benjamin was safely travelling with them; and they were going home with more grain.

But their joy was not a true joy as it was based on lies. True joy must be based on truth. They still hadn’t owned up to what they had done to Joseph. And so, Joseph had set one more test for them.

When Joseph’s household manager caught up to them and found his master’s silver cup that he had planted in Benjamin’s sack, the brothers were in fear once more. (Whether Joseph actually used the silver cup for foretelling the future we don’t know, but he was giving his brothers the impression that he could!) Joseph announced that the penalty would be that Benjamin would become his slave but the other brothers could return home.

But Judah interceded for Benjamin, telling Joseph of his promise to protect his youngest brother. Judah was so different from how he had been in the past when he sold Joseph off and claimed he was dead, or when he cheated Tamar, his daughter-in-law, of an heir and family protection.

Judah told Jospeh he would take Benjamin’s place and penalty. He was willing to be Benjamin’s substitute. (This was very interesting because later on in history, the Messiah, or Saviour, would come from Judah’s family. The Messiah’s job was to the take the believer’s place and suffer the penalty of eternal death on the believer’s behalf. Judah was foreshadowing what his descendant, the Messiah, would later do.)

In this way, Judah and the brothers passed the test. Previously, they had caused Joseph’s suffering and the suffering of Jacob their father. But now, Judah was not only willing to take Benjamin’s punishment, he also expressed deep concern for his father. He worried that his aged father would die of grief if Benjamin did not return. Judah and his brothers had grown mature, caring and compassionate.

Seeing them changed and overcome with grief, Joseph could not contain his own emotions any longer. He revealed who he truly was—their long-lost brother. The brothers were initially terrified by this revelation. They feared Joseph would seek vengeance on them. But Joseph immediately set about calming their fears. And in his words to them, we see the understanding and spiritual maturity of Joseph.

He gave them Yahweh’s perspective of the last 20 years. Despite his brothers’ sinful intention of selling him off, Joseph realised that God was working through their evil decision.

Joseph mentioned once the evil his brothers had done. But he mentioned three times what Yahweh had done to send him into Egypt to prepare the way to save his family. All those years of suffering were not without reason or purpose. Understanding that God had never abandoned him but was at work through all those difficult years made all the difference in Joseph’s heart attitude.

This is a key biblical event in understanding how Yahweh’s sovereignty interacts with the free will actions of humans. This is the Creator-creature distinction at work. The brothers were responsible for the evil choice they had made, but God was also acting to save lives at the same time.

Joseph was genuine in his love and care for his brothers. He said he would provide them a place to live in Egypt; he said he would provide all the food they needed to survive the remaining five years of the famine; and he said he wanted his father to be with him. He showed nothing but care for his family. There was no hint of vengeance or bitterness at all because he understand Yahweh was involved in everything that had happened.

Hearing the news that Joseph’s brothers had come, Pharaoh graciously told Joseph to invite his entire family to come down to Egypt and stay in the best of the land.

After 20 years of difficulty, things were now moving rapidly for Joseph and his family. Though we’ve been observing the personal hardships, lives and decisions of the sons of Jacob, the bigger perspective was that Yahweh was at work. He had called Abraham and his family for a purpose. When they forgot their purpose, their life meandered. Think of Judah and his actions toward Tamar. When they remembered God had a plan for them, they remained steadfast and loyal to God and could endure hard times. Think of Joseph and the visions God gave him.

We have been told in God’s Word that He has a plan and purpose for our lives. When hard times hit us, we can meander. Or we can seek Him through prayer about what He has in mind. We can trust in His purposes for us and remain steadfast and loyal to Him. We can trust Him as Joseph did and remain loyal to Him, knowing He has all the resources and solutions we need.

The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 34

Yahweh tests the sons of Jacob through Joseph

Read Genesis 42:1–43:34.

The famine affected many nations but Egypt had grain. Though Jacob had many servants, he entrusted the critical task of getting food for the entire household to his sons. But Jacob kept Benjamin home. He was Joseph’s younger brother, the second son of his beloved wife Rachel. Having lost Joseph, Jacob didn’t want to lose Benjamin too.

The brothers arrived at the city where Joseph was and were brought before him. He recognised them but they didn’t recognise him because they last saw him when he was 17. He was now 39 and dressed as a high-ranking Egyptian official. And he purposely spoke through an interpreter, giving them the impression he was Egyptian.

Why didn’t Joseph reveal himself? Because of his visions, he knew he would meet his brothers again but seeing them for the first time in over 20 years made him emotional. Joseph also knew all eleven brothers had to bow before him and Benjamin was missing. So he used the opportunity to test his brothers, to see if they were repentant.

Four times Joseph accused them of being spies. But they denied it by giving him details about their family, even admitting that one of their brothers was now dead. Joseph, of course, knew they were referring to him.

Initially, Joseph wanted to prove their story by imprisoning all of them but one, but he changed the test and held on to one brother—Simeon, the second oldest. Why not Reuben the oldest? Perhaps because Reuben had exclaimed that he had tried to convince the others not to harm Joseph. But by their general regret, Joseph was starting to see that they were indeed repentant.

With Simeon in custody, the others returned home with grain. Joseph continued to test their consciences on the way home, this time with kindness, for he had returned all the money they paid for the grain. The brothers panicked when they discovered the money and thought God was punishing them (because they feared the Egyptians would think they didn’t pay for the grain). Unlike in the past, the brothers were now sensitive to Yahweh’s actions in their lives. They hadn’t been like this when Joseph was at their mercy!

Jacob reacted in fear when he was told what had happened. He had lost Joseph, and now Simeon (so he thought) and he wasn’t about to lose Benjamin. He said that everything was going against him! His faith in God, which had grown strong over the years, was severely shaken up by this test.

Though Simeon remained in custody, Jacob refused to let any of his sons return to Egypt for fear of losing more sons. But the food they bought eventually ran out.

Now the brothers demonstrated their responsible nature. Judah promised his father that he would be responsible for Benjamin. Years earlier, he had promised Tamar he would pay her for sex, but didn’t fulfil that promise. Now, he promised to keep Benjamin safe or be held forever responsible for anything that may happen to Benjamin. Judah was a changed man.

The brothers took a double payment as well as gifts for Joseph. They confessed to Joseph’s household manager about the earlier returned payment, only to be told their earlier payment had been received. The brothers must have wondered what was going on.

Joseph arranged for a meal with his brothers and upon seeing his full brother Benjamin for the first time in over 20 years, he was overwhelmed. Then Joseph shocked his brothers by arranging them around the table in their birth order! There was more nervousness as Joseph gave Benjamin five times more food. Joseph was hinting to them who he was. But could they figure it out?

There are three lessons we can learn from this account.

First, notice Yahweh at work. He started with giving Joseph visions of his future and now they were about to be fulfilled. Though there were many people and personal choices involved, God was overall directing the way. This is true for our lives too. When we are in the midst of a struggle, we often can’t see how God is working things out. But we can always ask Him in prayer where and how He is directing our lives.

Second, can we be like Joseph and restrain ourselves from taking advantage of a superior position? If someone has hurt us in the past, can we trust God to deal with it rather than us using human means?

Third, can we be humble and repentant like Joseph’s brothers when faced with an unresolved sin from the past? They were willing to face whatever discipline God had for them. Are we also able to do that?

Archaeological Note

Composite image of “Beni Hasan Mural” by A.D. Riddle. Public domain. Wikimedia Commons.

In Middle Egypt is the ancient cemetery known today as Beni Hasan, located approximately 20 km (12 miles) south of modern-day Minya. Many provincial governors were buried in tombs and burial shafts and in Tomb 3, archaeologists discovered what is now called the “Beni Hasan Mural”.

The mural was done around 1890 BC (around the time of Abraham to Jacob). The mural depicts traders who do not look like Egyptians. They are from Canaan, with hairstyles different from the Egyptians and they are drawn wearing knee-length, multi-coloured tunics. Perhaps the tunics are the same style as the one given by Jacob to Joseph as a special gift. The mural shows that people from Canaan, like Jacob’s family, were known to visit and trade with Egypt.

Also interestingly, in the sections of Genesis related to Joseph, particularly Genesis 41:1–42 (Reading 33), there are many Egyptian words. This suggests that the author of Genesis (Moses, whom we will meet in the book of Exodus) was very familiar with Egyptian language and culture. This is not a surprise since Moses grew up as a prince of Egypt.