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Byfield Parish
Church Devotional Guide For the week of February 21, 2010 Christ in Exodus Prepared by: Dr. William Boylan Box 335, Georgetown, MA 01833 This devotional guide is designed to help you walk by faith. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing is the key to a living faith. When we come to worship prepared to hear from the Lord and primed to listen to scripture, our faith is strengthened. Copies of this devotional are available for the asking. If you know someone who could benefit, we would be pleased to send them a copy. Please include a self-addressed envelope with your request. All Verses are from the New International Version. See other translations click here |
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Monday |
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To Read: Exodus 3 To Know: “Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the
Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to
you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell
them?’ God also said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are
to say to the Israelites; ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” (Exodus
3:13,14)
How the mighty have fallen. Moses plummeted from near the throne of
Egypt to the Midian desert where he tended sheep. The author of
Hebrews wrote, “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be
known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated
along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of
sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as
of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking
ahead to his reward.” (11:24-26) Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the
writer of Hebrews said that the disgrace of Moses was “for the sake
of Christ.” Moses first met Christ in the burning bush. A bush that
burns without being burned signals the presence of eternity. The
bush was a sign that there exited something or someone never ending.
That someone is the creator and sustainer of all things.
Again the author
of Hebrews identifies Christ as the creator and sustainer of all
things. “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the
prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days
he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all
things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the
radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being,
sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided
purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty
in heaven.” (1:1-3) Not until Moses was reduced to tending sheep, did God commission him to deliver Israel from Egypt. God gave his name as, “I AM who I AM.” This is the name by which Jesus revealed himself to his adversaries. His antagonists asked, “Are you greater than our father Abraham?” Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth…before Abraham was born, I am!” (Jn. 8:58) The burning bush showed what the incarnate God said, “I AM.”
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Tuesday |
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To Read: Exodus 4 To Know: “Moses answered, ‘What if they do not
believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to
you’?’”(Exodus 4:1) Moses is the
great Christ figure of the Old Testament. To Moses, God revealed the
content of the first five books of the Bible. The great Old
Testament act and theme is the Exodus. Unlike Christ who was God and
man, Moses was only a man. Moses was prone to doubt but God was at
work to give him faith.
Faith in man is the work of God. God gives faith by granting his
word to be heard. The apostle Paul wrote, (faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of God.). To assuage his doubts, the Lord
granted Moses something he could see. The
Lord had mercy on his doubting servant. “What is that in your hand?”
asked the Lord. “A staff,” relied Moses. “The Lord said, ‘Throw it
on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake,
and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand
and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the
snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. (see Ex. 4:2-4)
Does God still give his servants signs to strengthen faith?
Unquestionably yes.
Because God answers prayer, it is possible to
see God at work. Dr. Harold Okenga kept track of his prayers in a
journal. When answered, Okenga noted it in the journal. As time went
on, evidence began to mount that God was very real and attentive to
his petitions. The answers began to accumulate. In time, it became
undeniable that someone was listening to the Doctor and acting on
what he asked.
To Do: Establishing a prayer journal provides an instrument the Lord can use to make his will known.
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Wednesday |
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To Read: Exodus 5 To Know: “Moses returned to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.’” (Ex. 5:22,23) God delights in putting his people in humanly hopeless places. That happened to Moses and fifteen hundred years later it happened to Jesus. Moses was called to face down the most powerful leader of his day, the Pharaoh of Egypt. “Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert,” was the message Moses was to deliver. Time had run out on Egypt. No longer would the Egyptians build their civilization on the backs of God’s people. Especially they would not be free to annihilate the race God had promised would give the world it’s savior. When John was given his revelation on the island of Patmos, he saw the true cause of suffering among the people of God. “A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.” (Rev. 12:104) The struggle between the woman’s child and the dragon symbolizes the struggle between God and the god of this world throughout the ages. The God of the slaves sent Moses as his servant to do battle in his name with Pharaoh, the servant of the god of this age. On the cross, Christ did battle with the devil and rescued his own from the kingdom of darkness. That is exactly what Paul wrote to the Colossians. “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. When Moses went to battle against Pharaoh, he was in a humanly hopeless place. That was in order to prove that God is the hope of those who trust him. |
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Thursday |
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To Read: Exodus 6 To Know: “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.’” (Ex. 6:1) This chapter deals with the deliverance of
the nation.
Salvation is the work of God from
beginning to end. This is as true of individual people as it is of
nations. In Exodus, the Israelites are being saved from bondage to
Pharaoh. Twenty times in the first eight verses of this chapter, God
says I or my.
God said, “I am…” “I appeared…” ‘by my
name…” “my covenant…” I have heard…” “I have remembered…” “I am the
Lord…” I will bring you out…” “I will free you…” “I will redeem
you…” “I will take you as my own…” “I am the Lord your God…” “I will
bring you to the land…” “I swore with uplifted hand…” “I will give
it to you as a possession.” “I am the Lord.” God’s self-revelation
comes at Moses like the incoming tide. It rolls in wave upon wave.
God disclosed what he would do in and through Moses by piling up
promises. These divine declarations are now history and history
proves them true. Whoever spoke these words to Moses possessed the
power to accomplish what was promised. These were not demands
regarding what Moses was to do. These were declarations regarding
what God would do. The salvation of the nation was by the grace of
God from beginning to end.
Gods accomplishes his will through the faith of his people. Moses’ faith is strengthened by the revelation he is given. The greatest need in our times of trouble is faith to trust the promises of God. Moses was given a clear vision of God in order to stand firm against the power of Pharaoh. The Bible is a vision given to the world in divinely inspired words. To Do: As you read through the Bible, keep pad and pencil handy to keep a record of the promises made to any and all who are granted to have faith in Christ.
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To Read: Exodus 7 To Know: “You are to say everything I
command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the
Israelites go out of his country. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart,
and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he
will not listen to you...”(Ex. 7:2,3)
This chapter stretches our faith. Many
Christians stagger at the absolute sovereignty of God. That God
creates woe as well as weal offends many. (See Is. 45:7) The Bible
reveals that God hardens pharaoh’s heart before the king hardens
himself. Does the fact that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart mean that
God and not the Egyptian ruler is the cause of his sin? Would
Pharaoh, if left to himself, have been disposed to let his slaves
depart his land?
Two words appear in the text that are
translated harden. The first word means to strengthen. The second
describes callousness. By nature, Pharaoh’s heart was callous. God
made that callousness firm. He did not change the nature of the king
from good to evil. God made, what the king already was, firm and
strong. Pharaoh’s heart was made adamant by an act of God. When
athletes exercise they do not exchange their muscles, they
strengthen them. Pharaoh had a stony heart and God made it strong.
We were all born with stony hearts. The saving work of God in Jesus Christ is to take away our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh. To Read: Saturday:
Exodus 8 Sunday: Exodus 9
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E-mail to: mfowler@byfieldparish.org |
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