TODAY IN THE WORD

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Exodus 2:1-25
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways. - Psalm 37:7
TODAY IN THE WORD
Life doesn't stop when we suffer. It would certainly be easier if it did: we could give our pain its due attention, write the finale, and open a new chapter. But when we grieve the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, or the betrayal of a friend, we do so in the middle of going to school, getting married, raising children, and advancing our careers. This was true in the story of Moses' parents. They belonged to a generation of slaves with no real freedom and no hope in sight. Nevertheless, they found love and married. They gave birth to children.

The realities of life were harsh, but they could embrace small evidences of God's grace. Their son's life was saved, and the mother would be paid for nursing the very son to whom she gave birth. At least for a short season, she was restored the joy not only of raising her son but work that was meaningful and rewarding.

Starting in verse 11, we see Moses as a grown man at the age of 40. Nothing has changed about the Israelites' suffering. Pharaoh has not backed away from his determination to make life miserable for the Hebrew slaves. Moses, raised an Egyptian, identified himself now as a Hebrew and acted as a vigilante on their behalf.

He did exactly what we must avoid when we suffer. Our impulse is to do something drastic to change our circumstances. Like Moses, we want to right the wrong. Or we might try to dull the pain. We want to make it stop, and we end up acting rashly.

Moses didn't yet know how to turn to God, but our passage today tells us exactly why we should turn to God when we suffer (vv. 23-25). God can be trusted. Even when we don't have the faith to compose prayers, God hears our cries and complaints. God can be trusted because God doesn't forget His promises, and He isn't indifferent to our pain. God can be trusted because He is not far from us when we suffer: He knows everything we endure, and His compassion is real.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
If you're facing something difficult now, don't make the same mistake Moses did. If you've been hurt by someone, don't act rashly on your feelings of bitterness and anger. Instead, ask the Holy Spirit to help you forgive. If you're grieving a loss in your life, turn to God as a source of comfort, rather than to empty substitutes. If you see injustice being done, ask for God's help to be an agent of righteousness in His way and His time. All of these responses require patience and prayer.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Exodus 3:1-22
I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt . . . I am concerned about their suffering. - Exodus 3:7
TODAY IN THE WORD
Throughout Jesus' ministry, He called people in the context of their everyday lives. He invited Simon, James, and John to follow Him when they had fishing nets in their hands. He called Matthew from the seat in a tax collector's booth. He met blind men alongside the road and Zacchaeus in a tree. These encounters with God happened during the activities of ordinary life.

Moses met God on what was likely a very ordinary day. He was tending the sheep and cattle for his father-in-law, enjoying the solitude of the mountains, perhaps lost in the quiet reverie of his own thoughts. Forty years had been sufficient time to forget the responsibility he had once felt toward the suffering Hebrew slaves in Egypt. And then he heard the voice of God.

Moses may not have recognized the voice of God, but he recognized his own name. It's significant that the first word God spoke to Moses was Moses' name. Some- times the only thing we can hear in our first encounters with God is our own name. What's most real in our lives is how we feel, how we hurt, how we have been wronged. Our lives convince us that we, not God, are the center of our world. When God speaks our name, we realize we're not as alone as we once thought.

God then spoke His name to Moses. He is the God of Abraham. He is Yahweh, the eternally existing God, the I AM. By His name, He reveals that He is the center and the source of life. He isn't unaware of what we endure, and He isn't ambivalent to what we suffer.

He spoke hope to Moses. He told Moses about His plan to rescue His people from Egypt and take them to a better place, the land He had already promised to Abraham. Their slavery would end, their freedom would be guaranteed. All was not lost! God was coming to the rescue.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene in the garden after His resurrection (John 20:10-18). She, beset with grief, mistook Him for the gardener. It was when He spoke her name that she recognized Him. God knows you by name. Do you know how much He loves you? Read Psalm 139 as a reminder of your unique value to Him. If you are going through a difficult time, let this Psalm encourage you, or use it to encourage someone close to you who is suffering.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Exodus 4:1-19, 29-31
God testified to [this salvation] by signs, wonders and various miracles. - Hebrews 2:4
TODAY IN THE WORD
Ancient Egyptian religion was quite superstitious. According to historian Will Durant, “Egyptian religion had little to say about morality; the priests were busier selling charms, mumbling incantations and performing magic rites than inculcating ethical precepts.”

If someone read only the first portion of Exodus, the same claim might be leveled against Hebrew religion. God gave Moses incredible power to perform miracles, and in the context of some of the plagues, it looked like a showdown between Yahweh and the Egyptian magicians.

We need to understand the purpose for which God designed these miracles. They aren't for special effects, but for revealing the power of God over the created order. Egyptian religion centered on the worship of creation, and these miracles, which overturned natural laws, struck at the heart of that religion. God wanted the Israelites to acknowledge His absolute authority over creation and His superiority over the Egyptian gods. These miracles were also intended to authenticate Moses as God's spokesman. God wanted the Israelites to believe that what He says is true and that this man, Moses, was indeed His chosen leader.

The first sign involved a snake, the Egyptian symbol of wisdom and life, worn by the Pharaoh himself. The second involved the body, proving God's power to heal (cf. Ex. 15:26). The third involved the Nile River, the lifeblood of Egyptian civilization. These three signs, similar to the plagues to come, provided compelling evidence of God's authority and power.

In our key verse, the writer of Hebrews tells us that every miracle God performed was for the purpose of verifying His message about Himself and about salvation. God doesn't always choose to work miraculously. In fact, the story of Exodus teaches us that miracles alone can never fully persuade us to trust God. Faith is more than being wowed by something God does; faith is responding obediently to what God says.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
As you read the book of Exodus this month, unfortunately you'll find a lot of doubt and rejection of God's word. This leads us to examine our own lives. In certain seasons, the action of God is very plain. We can see His involvement in our lives, and it's easy to respond obediently to Him. At other times, God's ways aren't so clear, and we're left with no visible testimony of God in our lives except the words of Scripture. Do we treasure His words? Do we believe His promises? Or do we demand that He work miracles?

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Exodus 5:1-6:8
Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance. - Isaiah 19:25
TODAY IN THE WORD
The civilization of Sumeria from which God called Abram practiced polytheistic religion. Every city had its own god. Religion was provincial; people worshiped the god their ancestors had worshiped. Imagine how extraordinary it was when Abram left his family and their gods to follow the commands of the strange God their clan had never known.

It may be true that the Israelites, from Abraham's time until the time of the Exodus, did not fully grasp who it was that called Himself the “God of Israel.” Perhaps they persisted in a belief that this God was no more than a national deity; the Egyptians had their gods, the Sumerians had their gods, and the Hebrews had Yahweh. In the opening verses of chapter five, Moses calls God the “God of Israel” and the “God of the Hebrews.” His argument to Pharaoh for letting the people go is not that the Egyptians would be punished for refusing to liberate the Israelites, but that the Israelites themselves would suffer at the hands of this God. This may have been an argument that he thought Pharaoh would understand, or perhaps evidence that Pharaoh would have been spared the plagues had he relented and released the Israelites earlier.

The experience of the Exodus would redefine the Israelites' understanding of God, but it took time. Today's reading proves that there would be no immediate deliverance. It was going to get worse before it got better. Their slavery worsened; Egyptian sentiment hardened further against the Israelites after Moses' initial plea.

This turn of events left Moses leveling what sounds like an accusation against God: “You have not rescued your people at all!” It's a question that many of us feel like asking when, by faith, we choose to believe and follow God, and invariably, He seems to disappoint us. We expect something from Him, and He doesn't deliver. Worse, our expectations have been shaped by His promises. Has His Word failed? It's often a painful process to revise our expectations and understanding of God.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Reread Exodus 6:1-8. Make a two-column list of the things God has already done for the Israelites (past-tense actions) as well as the things He promises to do (“I will” statements). Here's a critical spiritual truth, especially in times of darkness and difficulty: we can trust God and live with hope today, no matter what the circumstances, by recognizing what God has done in our past and what He promises for our future. Read Ephesians 1:17-23 as a reminder of this truth.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Exodus 7:1-13
The Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment. - 2 Peter 2:9
TODAY IN THE WORD
One question haunts human existence: “Why does evil exist?” Rousseau, a French thinker of the Enlightenment, believed that we are born innately good and our environment corrupts us. His American contemporary, Jonathan Edwards, a Puritan preacher, preached that evil emerges from within us because of our sin nature.

Many get stuck on the question on evil, especially when we suffer unjustly. How can we surrender our lives to a God who's either ambivalent to cruelty or powerless to do anything about it? We might have better luck playing Russian roulette.

But God can be trusted, as the book of Exodus wants us to understand. The idea of judgment as it first appears in our reading today and in chapters to come provides a critical framework for our faith. In earlier chapters we've seen God's compassionate response to His people in their suffering. He had set in motion a plan to rescue them. But God's goodness includes more than just compassion for His people; He is also good because He upholds justice against those who perpetrate evil.

As we saw earlier, one purpose of the plagues was to inspire faith in the one true God, Yahweh; the plagues also served as judgment against the false gods of Egypt. The Egyptians worshiped creation, and they also worshiped the false gods of power and prosperity. They enslaved the Israelite people because they wanted to control any threat to their power and to enrich themselves. They did not want the Israelites mounting a rebellion that would jeopardize their grandiose building projects. They committed the evil act of dehumanizing an entire group of people for their own self-advancement.

God would act decisively to right the wrongs the Israelites have suffered. In this situation, He would no longer tolerate the evil and injustice suffered by His people. His judgment is an expression of His goodness, and His goodness is reason for trusting Him.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Read the passage from where we take our key verse, 2 Peter 2:4-10. Here we find more examples of God rescuing the godly and punishing evildoers, such as in the stories of Noah and Lot. If you're struggling to trust God's justice, read passages like Psalm 73 and Romans 12:14-21. Other vivid pictures of God's wrath against injustice are included in Revelation; read chapter 16 as an example, and meditate on verse 7: “Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.”

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Exodus 7:14-8:19
God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. - Romans 9:18
TODAY IN THE WORD
John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minnesota and founder of Desiring God ministries, has written many sermons and books on the sovereignty of God. In one sermon, he describes God's sovereignty this way: “God's freedom in mercy and hardening is at the heart of God's glory and God's name. This is what it means to be God—to be ultimately free and unconstrained from powers outside himself.”

The first chapters of Exodus confront questions concerning God's sovereignty and human free will. Before the plagues even began, God committed to hardening Pharaoh's heart (7:3). In essence, he declared Pharaoh the loser before the start of the games. Can this be fair? Were the plagues no more than a divine charade to keep alive the illusion that humans have a choice in the matter when it comes to God's plans?

We see in our reading today that Pharaoh was not a pawn in God's divine schemes. He was making real decisions. The language of the text suggests that Pharaoh himself chose not to listen to God. Even in the face of the miraculous, Pharaoh refused to believe. He was guilty of hardening of his heart (8:15). The passage suggests that God's choice and Pharaoh's choice work together in a way that we might not fully understand. We cannot minimize either God's sovereignty or human responsibility.

What we actually see from the account of the plagues is not injustice on God's part, but rather His magnificent patience. As early as Exodus 4:23, we have a warning from God about the final plague, the plague of the firstborn. God gave Pharaoh nine chances to heed His word.

God could have forced Pharaoh's hand earlier. He could have launched a divine blitz to get His people out of Egypt. But He confronted Pharaoh with His word before He ever drew His sword. Ten times Moses said to Pharaoh, “Let my people go.” Ten times, Pharaoh chose not to listen. And he was held accountable for that choice.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
In Romans 9, Paul teaches the doctrine of divine election, that God freely chooses who will receive His mercy and who will receive His wrath.

But we are not powerless. Paul himself says in Romans 10:1 that he prays for his fellow Israelites to be saved. He maintained a confidence in the power of prayer and the mercy of God to be moved by prayer. We, too, have to keep praying for people who are still far from God.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Exodus 8:20-9:12
I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. - Exodus 6:7
TODAY IN THE WORD
John Sailhamer, in his book, The Pentateuch as Narrative, underscores the importance of seeing the first five books of the Bible as a single book written by Moses. Pentateuch is a carefully constructed literary work of someone, who, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wanted to communicate important truths to the people of Israel. Studying Exodus can lead us to examine the literary structures of the book as well as to discover its theological principles.

One interesting literary element of the plagues narrative is that the first nine plagues are grouped into triplets. Each triplet of plagues shares similarities: in the first, fourth, and seventh plagues, Moses delivered his warning to Pharaoh early in the morning by the Nile. In the second, fifth, and eighth plagues, Moses confronted Pharaoh in his palace. In the third, sixth, and ninth plagues, God gave no warning of the plague to come. The final and most devastating plague stands alone.

In our reading today, we are explicitly told for the first time that God spared the Israelites from the plague of the flies and the plague of the livestock. Miraculously, the land of Goshen was shielded from these harbingers of death. In today's passage, Moses details why God visited these plagues on the Egyptians and not on the Hebrews.

God dealt differently with the Israelites than with the Egyptians. As God's chosen people, they received God's preferential treatment. He was in their midst: “I, the Lord, am in this land” (v. 22). As this distinction became evident, notions of what makes people valuable were turned on their head. Pharaoh, the most powerful ruler of the ancient world at this time, could not escape the judgment of God. The flies poured into his palace, and his royal livestock lay dead in the morning. Yet the Egyptian slave labor force, the Israelites, the people whose babies had been so carelessly thrown into the river, were divinely spared.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
The world defines and values people according to their power and prestige. But the Bible teaches us that what matters most is our identity as the beloved children of God. Read the following passages about our identity and worth: Romans 8:12-17; Galatians 3:26-4:7; 1 Peter 2:4-12. What implications do these truths have for how we live? And where can you find evidence of God's special provision and protection in your life, similar to the example we have in our reading today?

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Exodus 9:13-10:29
I have raised you up for this purpose, that I might show you my power. - Exodus 9:16
TODAY IN THE WORD
In 2005, David Samuels wrote an article the The Atlantic entitled, “How Arafat Destroyed Palestine: The Legacy of One Man's Corrupt Personal Rule.” Samuels cites evidence that Arafat lined his pockets with money pilfered from the Palestinian treasury. During his tenure as Palestinian president, a mere 10 percent of the Palestinian budget was actually spent on the needs of the people in the West Bank and Gaza.

Arafat is one of many leaders throughout history whose personal greed and pride destroy the people they intend to lead. The Egyptian Pharaoh in the book of Exodus is another such leader. Egypt had been utterly devastated by the plagues: their crops destroyed, their livestock dead. Egyptian officials were pleading with Pharaoh to give in to the demands of Yahweh and save Egypt from further destruction.

But pride tightened its death grip on Pharaoh's heart, and he refused their pleas. He could not humble himself. His authority had been challenged with each plague, and the one remaining vestige of power—that of determining the fate of the Israelites—he could not concede.

God opens His playbook in today's reading and reveals His strategy behind the plagues. First, He was making a name for Himself. “There is no one like me in all the earth” (v. 14). Pharaoh was not God: He is. And He is not just the God of the Israelites. Yahweh rules over Egypt and over the entire earth (v. 29). It's as if the plagues themselves were like a full-page ad in the Egyptian Times: “I am God. I rule the earth. You worship creation: I am the Creator. Nothing can thwart my power and my plans.”

Through the story of the plagues and eventually the Exodus, God was also authoring what would be the defining story for future generations. This story of God's judgment on the Egyptians and God's rescue of the Israelites would be the compelling reason why future generations would know and trust the Lord.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
God doesn't just give us His truth in a theological lists and formulas. He gives us stories, which speak powerfully about His salvation. The central story of the Old Testament is the Exodus. The central story of the New Testament is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The parallels between both of these stories are extraordinary. When you teach your children the truths of the faith or when you share the gospel with friends, capture the character and plan of God's redemption through these two events.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Exodus 11:1-10
Blessed are you, O Israel . . . a people saved by the Lord. - Deuteronomy 33:29
TODAY IN THE WORD
The AIDS virus has ravaged sub-Saharan Africa. It has orphaned 15 million children and shortened life expectancy in some countries to a mere 37 years. In countries like Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, AIDS is believed to affect 15 to 20 percent of the adult population. The AIDS crisis is a modern-day plague of death.

In the next few days, we'll read about the tenth and final plague visited upon Egypt. It, too, is a plague of death. The Israelites would be spared, but the firstborn of every Egyptian family and herd would die as night fell.

We can't help but think about the innocent children who suffered under this plague. What's more, Pharaoh, the evil man behind the melodrama of the last several chapters, lost a son, yet his own life was preserved. How do we reconcile what we know of God's goodness and justice with the tenth plague?

This death knell might be more horrific than what we would prefer to find in the Bible. Think back to Genesis: Adam and Eve died for transgressing God's command, the generation of Noah died in the Flood, and Sodom and Gomorrah were obliterated because of their sin. Why are the pages of Scripture stained with blood?

It isn't because God takes pleasure in anyone's death (cf. Ezek. 18:23). It is because death is the ultimate reality of fallen humanity: for the Egyptians on the night of the Passover, and for every human being. God had not created humanity to experience death, but the consequence of sin has brought upon each of us its curse (cf. Rom. 3:23).

The Passover story doesn't just include death; we miss the whole picture if that is all we see. Passover also proclaims life for the people of God. It reveals gospel truth. At the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ is a message about God rescuing us from spiritual death. The Passover foreshadows this message and adds an important word to our spiritual vocabulary: salvation.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
We don't all have dramatic testimonies of God saving us from drugs, alcohol, or crime, especially if we professed our faith in Christ at an early age. But it's still true that we've been saved. Think of some of the synonyms for saved: rescued, delivered, liberated, set free. Reflect on how God has rescued you. From what have you been delivered and liberated? Do you live as one set free? “Jesus saves” may sound like a worn-out revival phrase, but it captures what's true of us as Christians.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Exodus 12:1-30, 43-51
Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. - 1 Corinthians 5:7
TODAY IN THE WORD
Pat Tillman left a lucrative football career with the Arizona Cardinals to join the army after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The news of his death in 2004 made headlines, and Tillman was heralded a hero. More than a month later, however, his family learned that American—not Taliban—troops had fired the fatal shot. Tillman had been killed by “friendly fire.”

The event of the Passover foreshadows Jesus' death on the cross, the ultimate example of “friendly fire” when God the Father fired a shot, and God the Son took the bullet.

Our reading today describes the fateful night when the angel of death visited every Egyptian household, and none were spared. Even the firstborn son of Pharaoh, thought to be a son of god, died. The language of verse 29 is unequivocal. God has authority over all of creation, to give life and breath, or to take it away. The night of the Exodus, He took Egyptian life as an act of judgment on their sin (v. 12).

But just as He acted in judgment, He also acted in mercy. He spared the Hebrew people. The same God who visited the Egyptian homes to bring death is the God who passed over the Israelite homes. In Isaiah 31:5, we learn that to “pass over” means to shield and defend. God Himself stood in the doorway of Hebrew homes to defend its occupants. The sign of their deliverance was the blood on the doorposts of their homes.

In the Passover and at the cross, sin is judged, and the penalty is death. God, being a holy God, must execute His just wrath against sin.

His love, however, makes way for mercy. In the Passover, the lamb is sacrificed as a symbol of what Jesus would do for every person on the cross, when Jesus would die by “friendly fire.” He took the bullet of the Father's wrath on our behalf.

His death and resurrection makes it possible for us to be brought out of bondage to sin.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Jewish people today still celebrate the Passover, usually around the time of the observance of Easter. At the heart of the Passover celebration is the Seder, a communal meal to celebrate their deliverance from Egypt. Many Jewish Christian fellowships celebrate a Christian Passover meal, which highlights the Christian symbolism of the Exodus story. Consider attending a Seder meal this spring as a means of understanding more completely these symbols that illustrate Jesus' death on our behalf.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Exodus 12:3-42; 13:1-22
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. - Psalm 40:2
TODAY IN THE WORD
On September 9, 2008, Leona Baxter was sucked down a storm drain as she and the family dog splashed in puddles in a park near her home. She was dragged through a concrete pipe nearly 50 feet long. Her dad describes her rescue: “I ran across to the river and saw what I thought was Leona's coat. It wasn't—it was Leona floating face down in the river. I jumped in and grabbed her.”

We all have a story like Leona's, a story of how God our Father jumped in the river after us. It's the story of our salvation. The book of Exodus recounts the story of Israel's salvation, and in Exodus 13:14-15, that story is summarized. It gives us a framework for understanding our own salvation stories.

“With a mighty hand,” the story begins (13:14). Every act of salvation demonstrates the awesome power of God, whether it's crossing the Red Sea or kicking addiction. Salvation stories also remind us from where we've come. For the Israelites, it was Egypt. For us, it may be a rebellious adolescence, a messy divorce, or bankruptcy. Salvation is that journey from slavery to freedom, death to life, and brokenness to wholeness. “When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed every firstborn” (13:15) acknowledges the enemies of God but assures us that evil won't always prevail. In heaven, we're going to sing, “Salvation and glory and power belong to our God” (Rev. 19:1).

The epilogue for every salvation story is, “This is why I sacrifice to the Lord” (13:15). Obedience and worship flow from salvation. Without the profound recognition that we've been saved, our spiritual lives can become perfunctory. We do what we have to, but our hearts are disengaged from God. As salvation becomes personal, obedience and worship aren't religious hoops through which we have to jump. We obey and worship the God to whom we owe our very lives (13:8).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Have you ever written down your personal salvation story, or your testimony? This week, set aside time to reflect on how God saved you. Specifically note the elements discussed today: God's power, what you were saved from, and how you live your life differently now that you are saved. After considering your story of salvation, see if you can condense it into one paragraph. If the goal is to share your story with someone lost (and it is!), you may have only five minutes for sharing it.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Exodus 14:1-31
Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! - Revelation 19:7
TODAY IN THE WORD
When Lin Miaoke sang “Ode to the Motherland” for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, she captured the hearts of the world. Only later was it reported that she had lip-synched to a recording actually sung by Yang Peiyi, whom the Chinese authorities had not considered cute enough to perform the song on camera.

China used its status as host nation for the Olympics to conduct a public relations campaign, choosing the details (and faces!) to present to the world. In the first fourteen chapters of Exodus, God has been launching something like a PR campaign about Himself. In God's case, every act and image represented His true self. Exodus 14 dazzles with His power: the waters of the Red Sea parted, the Israelites crossed to the other side on dry ground, and the pursuing Egyptian army drowned before their very eyes.

The spectacle of God's power in this picture was fantastic. Interestingly, though, if God were only concerned with safe passage to the Promised Land, He could have chosen an easier and more direct route. Surely, God didn't need to command the Israelites to turn around after several days' journey and head back toward Egypt, an action that positioned them for recapture when Pharaoh decided to pursue the Israelites.

God deliberately charted a course that seemed chaotic, and He did so for the purpose of showcasing His glory. Unlike us, who are often motivated to do what is most expedient and comfortable, God isn't pragmatic in His decision-making. Of course, He has purposes to achieve here, and He will make good on His promises to the Israelites. He will deliver them safely to the Promised Land.

But there's something more important than the destination. God chooses to act in such a way as to win renown and honor for His name. For all the nations who would hear the story of the miraculous parting of the Red Sea, God was asserting His supremacy as the one true God. And when God is honored as the supreme God, He is glorified.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
All throughout the Old and New Testaments, we see the preeminence of God's glory. As we see in our text today, God acts to gain the glory He deserves. When you have time for additional reflection on Scripture, review these passages to understand more fully what God's glory is, why it matters, and how we can reflect His glory in our lives: 1 Chronicles 16:7-36; Isaiah 6:1-3; John 1:14; Romans 3:23; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Ephesians 1:11-14; and Hebrews 2:7-10.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Exodus 15:1-21
The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. - Exodus 15:2
TODAY IN THE WORD
W. E. B. Du Bois, the first African-American scholar to earn a degree from Harvard, studied the experience of black slaves in America. He wrote about the impact of the spirituals, calling them “Sorrow Songs” and describing them as “the most beautiful expression of human experience born this side of the seas . . . the greatest gift of the Negro people.”

Just as it did for the African slaves, music expresses hope in times of despair; music can also declare most eloquently our greatest joys. The hymn of Exodus 15 is the loud and jubilant chorus of an enslaved people who have been delivered. Verse one tells us that Moses and the Israelites sang this song after the spectacular rescue in chapter 14. The theological content given in this passage may be the hymn that develops later, in the days and weeks to come, from the original refrain of verse 21. Miriam sang this chorus on the banks of the Red Sea, using her tambourine as accompaniment. Perhaps as the freed slaves marched toward the Promised Land, they added verses to the this glorious refrain, “The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea.”

However the song was composed, the hymn has been preserved for us as a theological reservoir for discovering truths about God. All this “wisdom” about God comes from seeing Him in action. The Israelites did not enjoy the privilege of studying a sacred text about God. At that time, there were no worship services or ministry of preaching as we know it. What they knew of God was what had been revealed to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and what they had witnessed of His mighty deeds. This hymn expresses these new discoveries about their God.

The strength of God is unrivaled; He easily defeats His enemies. The love of God is undeniable; He rescues the people of His promise. This hymn is a cry of confidence in God; He will lead them. They have nothing and no one to fear.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Music has significant power to focus our minds and hearts on God and His Word. Music was an important part of Jewish worship. The book of Psalms is actually a hymnal! In Christian tradition, music has also played an important role. How can you incorporate more music into your personal devotions? Into your family devotions? Even if your church sings contemporary worship music, invest in owning your own traditional hymnal to learn and to teach your children hymns of the faith.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Exodus 15:22-16:36
Come before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling. - Exodus 16:9
TODAY IN THE WORD
Deborah Scaling Kiley lived a nightmare. During a fierce storm, the yacht she and her four friends had been sailing sank, and they spent five perilous days in the open sea without food or water. Before Kiley's eventual rescue, two of the men drank salt water out of desperation, and the hallucinations started. They died when they slid off the side of the dinghy into a sea full of sharks to “get cigarettes.” In order to drown out the sounds of the sharks, Kiley repeated aloud, over and over, the words of the Lord's Prayer.

Each of us faces times of crisis. Will we react in despair, or will we cling to faith? In today's reading, the Israelites had been walking three days in the desert without water. Their thirst was agonizing, affecting most profoundly children and elderly people. People no doubt were collapsing, and finally, having reached utter desperation, they cried out to Moses, “What are we to drink?” God provided water for them, and all was well—until the provisions with which they left Egypt ran out. Their empty stomachs churned, and they remembered the delicacies of Egypt. This time, their complaining turned to accusation: “You have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death!” (16:3).

Could this be the same community of people who witnessed the cruel effects of the ten plagues on the Egyptians and how God had mercifully saved them? Did they remember how God miraculously parted the Red Sea, how they had walked across on dry ground and the Egyptians had drowned in pursuit?

Everything they'd proclaimed about God in Exodus 15 was forgotten. They made no appeal to the power of God they had seen displayed so visibly. All they now accepted was the evidence of their senses: they felt thirsty, and they felt hungry. This they interpreted to mean that God had somehow forgotten them. They began to despair when they should have been praying.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
We know that we should pray in times of crisis, but hopelessness keeps us from praying. It's impossible to pray when we are somehow convinced that God doesn't love us or is powerless to change our situation. Do you believe either of those two lies? You can know whether or not these lies have taken root, when your impulse, similar to that of the Israelites, is to complain rather than to pray. Confess to God where your faith is weak, and pray that He will strengthen your faith (cf. Mark 9:24).

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Exodus 17:1-16
He humbled you . . . to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. - Deuteronomy 8:3
TODAY IN THE WORD
The most recent version of Apple's iPhone supports software that can do much more than make and receive calls. One feature is its ability to recognize any song, sung either by the original artist or a cover band, and display the album cover on its screen. For instance, you might be walking through a store, and your iPhone can identify the songs playing on the store's speaker system.

We don't need an iPhone to recognize the refrain at the beginning of Exodus 17. It's the tune of “Woe is Me!” by the band called the Israelites. It sounds like a funeral dirge played in a minor key. In this variation, the Israelites were thirsty and convinced they were about to die.

As He's done from the very beginning of the book of Exodus, God deliberately seems to bring His people face to face with hardship. When He first commissioned Moses to lead the people out of Egypt and Moses made his plea before Pharaoh for the freedom of the Israelites, their slavery instantly worsened. When they were finally freed, God led them on an indirect route out of Egypt and even commanded them to turn back, inciting the Egyptians to chase them down. And now, as they journeyed through the wilderness, they set up camp (at God's command) at Rephidim, the most unlikely of sites. There was no water, and they were completely vulnerable to the enemy.

God wanted the Israelites to discover that they could depend on Him, not their own ingenuity or sufficiency. Without the thirst and hunger, without being attacked by enemies, they would never have learned that their daily bread came from God, and that God alone was their protection.

The staff, used by Moses to strike the rock at Horeb and used in battle against the Amalekites, was a symbol of the presence of God with His people. The answer to the question, “Is the Lord among us or not?” was a definitive “yes!”
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
God commanded Moses to record the events of their journey through the wilderness, in part because these stories would be sources of instruction and encouragement to us even today. Do you journal regularly? Sometimes, the act of writing and then rereading about our own personal journey can illuminate the patterns of how God is at work. If only the Israelites had seen the pattern of hardship on their journey and understood that it was never a time to despair but to expect God's deliverance!