Devotions: Life of Moses Exodus 3-4

This is not Moses’s finest moment. After spending 40 years shepherding flocks and raising his own family, Moses is finally called to do what he thought he was going to achieve 40 years earlier. You would think that Moses would say “finally! I can’t wait to go back to Egypt and finish what I started” or that he would understand that he is better prepared than ever to lead God’s people. Instead, when God says, “okay Moses, its time” Moses says “Why me? Who should I say sent me? What if they don’t believe me? But I’m not a great speaker and please send someone else!!”.

I wonder how many times I have uttered surprisingly similar thoughts or prayers to God. “I see them Lord, yes, I know this is the opportunity you have prepared for me to talk to them, I feel you Holy Spirit, you don’t need to push so hard, but why does it have to be me? I’m awkward and strange! There will be silence and I’m not prepared, I don’t know what to say! Why don’t you send someone else?” Moses’s excuses and failures are echoed by my own. I am terrified of what God wants from me sometimes. He asks me to achieve things that I know are above and beyond myself.

                

But God never asks us to do them alone. God tells Moses right off in Exodus 3:12 “But I will be with you”. Moses was never told: “Go and free my people, I’ll be here on my mountain, bring them here when you are done.” God knew that the task he was appointing for Moses was beyond Moses’s ability. That was the point! No man can accomplish God’s will. Only God can accomplish God’s will. We are blessed that God chooses to use us to accomplish his will!

                

Next time that I am confronted by a situation for which I do not feel fully equipped, I just need to remember that if it is in God’s will and according to His purpose then he will be with me. God is the one who will accomplish His will. I just get the opportunity to be a part of it.

                

Writing Prompt: A Magic Ring

                Zane isn't sure what it is, but it seems to fit his pointer finger perfectly. He knows it is a ring, that much is obvious, but he isn't sure what kind of ring. After all, it had come out of a box of healthy cereal, which had never had prizes before. It is heavy too, like it is made of metal, but metal didn't come out of cereal boxes, did it? He hops down from the chair at the dining room table and trundles towards his room, half-tripping over a red fire engine. Raising his hand up, he turns the doorknob and enters his room. Running to the bookshelf, he pulls out a box labeled “science kit” and tears it apart, strewing it around the room. Finding what he wanted he raises the magnifying glass to his eye and looks through it at the ring.

                It looks like the ring his dad wore on his left hand, grooved slightly down the middle and growing heavier by the second. Zane takes it off, setting it on the ground and looking at it again. It is dark in color, almost like his panda’s black fur, but it is shiny too. He likes the way it looks, and the way it looks on his finger. He thinks about putting it somewhere safe, but he wants to wear it again. So he puts it on, and waves his hand around, examining the ring from up high and down low. As he swings his hand upwards though, his whole body seems to lift and he finds himself floating toward the ceiling. He squeaks a little and then covers his mouth with his hand, feeling the ring’s cold surface on his face.

                He stops moving, hovering and he looks at the ring, and then points down, and he floats down toward the ground. With a little giggle, he points up again and the ring takes him upwards, he points left, and left he goes, he points right and he zooms across the room. The faster he swings his arm, the faster he switches directions. Laughing out loud he points back to the ground and lands back on the floor.

                “This ring is cool!” Zane says, and trundles back out his door toward the kitchen, only to see a little man, dressed all in blue, sitting on his table.

                “You are right.” The man says, a slight smile on his face. “It is cool.” Zane backs up slowly, and then, remembering the ring, points quickly back at his room only to find the little man in front of him again, his face only a few inches higher than his own.

                “I’d like my ring back.” He says and Zane can feel himself shaking inside.

                “I found it.” He says, hearing the shake in his voice. He clutches his fingers tightly around the ring, and the little man reaches down, pulling his fingers out of the fist and slipping the ring off of Zane’s finger and onto his own.

                “Just because you found it doesn't mean it belongs to you.” The man says, growing taller, and soon he is taller than Zane’s dad. “Now, run off and play.” And the man whips his finger towards the window and slips out. Zane rushes to the window and watches the strange man as he soars upwards. He feels his finger where the ring had just been, and he closes his eyes tightly, his little hands balling up into fists.

                Turning, Zane returns to the table, and opens the box of cereal again, pouring it out onto the table. Maybe next time he found a ring, there wouldn't be a little man to take it from him. 

Devotions: Life of Moses Exodus 2:11-25

2:23-25 “During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel – and God knew.”

I had a moment this morning when this verse just popped into my head, the verbs which were highlighted in my study this week, pulling me into a genuine ah-ha moment. God heard, remembered, saw and knew. He hears us, he remembers his promises, he sees us and he knows all of the circumstances that we are in. He is a God of the details and he knows us intimately. He hears and sees us, he remembers us and he knows our deepest fears and desires.

There have been times when I feel like the Israelite's feel, groaning and calling out to God. Don’t you see me? Don’t you see what is happening? Didn't you promise that you would be with me always? That you wouldn't give me more than I can bear? This passage acknowledges everything that I think the Israelite's might have been feeling.

Yes – I hear you. I hear your cry’s and groans as you suffer. I hear your distress and your pain. I hear every request and every cry for help.

Yes – I remember my promise to deliver you. I remember that covenant I made with Abraham, I remember that I told you I would bring you out from the oppression you are now suffering.

Yes – I see you. The burdens that you are carrying, the weight on your shoulders, all of those dead babies in the Nile, and the atrocities that have been committed against you.

Yes – I know you. I know how you were put together from dust. I know your father and your mother. I know that you desire freedom and a chance to raise your family.

But what about for me?

Yes – I hear you. I hear when you cry yourself to sleep because you think you aren’t good enough. Or when you are lonely. I hear your distress and your fears as you pray, out of desperation or joy. I hear you.

Yes – I remember my promise. I will never give you more than you can bear. I will be with you always, and you are my child. I will never leave nor forsake you and I am your salvation and your life.

Yes – I see you. I see that situation you are in, the stress you are under, the way your brow furrows, or the tears tracking down your face. I see you when you are alone or when you are surrounded by others.

Yes – I know you. I know the plans I have for you, I know where you came from and where you are going. I know why you act the way you do, and what you can become if you let me help you.

God is so awesome. He puts those four verbs in Exodus, and within it is wrapped another promise. I hear you, remember you, see you and know you. You are my child and I am your God.

And I am so grateful. 

Writing Prompt: Sound

                Kvette walks down the street alone, the abandoned and shredded houses staring at her with deep dark openings ripped into their shells. She had to be careful here, large predators liked to use the buildings to stalk their prey. She carries her refurbished speakers with her, tapping on them softly, trying not to let the shaking in her legs reveal weakness. It had been two days, her stomach protests again and she reaches up to pat it, her fingers white and trembling. She had gone longer than two days before although not willingly. She heads towards the houses, hoping to find something that wasn't completely destroyed. She was looking for wires. She still had speakers, but some of the others did not. The winds pick up around her and she curses, looking up at the sky, and the rapidly darkening clouds. The dangers of being in the heartland like this. Although she was safe from hurricanes and tsunami’s, tornadoes were a real danger at all times. Flipping the switch on her speakers, she curses again as the light doesn't turn on. Again, she flicks it, back and forth, back and forth, until at last the light turns on and she holds them over her head, tapping on her phone to call up the correct playlist for tornadoes.

                Popping a set of ear plugs in, she turns the volume all the way up and jazz music starts pouring out of the speakers. Then she crouches, in the middle of the street, and waits. Three tornadoes descend from the sky like fingers, meeting the ground and crawling upon it, ripping dirt and debris high into the air. They speed toward the town, and down the rows of houses. Things that used to be nailed in, but haven’t for a long time, speed upwards, swirling. It was likely that most of these piles of debris that used to be houses had never originated on this street, or even in this territory. Kvette crouches, eyes forward and down, arms starting to shake with the effort of holding the speakers over her head, and waits. The tornadoes converge on her, all three like hungry wolves and she waits. Then, the jazz music does what it’s supposed to. The first tornado seems to hum, the resonance of the music hitting it at just the right frequency and it lifts, slowly, off of the ground and over her head before setting back down, and rioting on down the street, the other two trailing it on either side. Kvette stands, turns the music off, and flicks off the speakers. She needed to conserve the batteries, there weren't many of those left either. 

Devotions: Life of Moses Exodus 1:1-2:10

                Studying the life of Moses excites me. Moses’s life was a series of miracles, starting from his birth and leading to his death. He is a man of exemplary faith and deeds, highlighted throughout the Bible for his faith and courage. But Moses was a man, with complaints, and needs, and serious issues. And the best part is, that Moses, inspired by God, wrote down his own story.

                What he wrote down first, is the story of a miracle, the hand of God at work in his life from the very beginning. He is born to a Hebrew family during the worst oppression Egypt has imposed on them, they are throwing all the baby boys into the Nile river. Yet somehow, Moses mother finds the will to resist, to try to save her baby. Maybe she knew of the prophesies where God had promised he would take his people up out of Egypt after 400 years (Genesis 15). Maybe she had planned the whole thing, the basket, the walking path of the Pharaoh’s daughter, what Miriam was to do and say, but it was out of her hands. The pity that the Pharaoh’s daughter had, the Pharaoh’s willingness to let her keep the child, these show the hand of God on Moses’s life.

                God created the circumstances in which a Hebrew boy, condemned to death by the Pharaoh would be saved by his daughter, raised first by his own family, and then by the palace, who would identify more with his own oppressed people rather than the life of luxury he had inherited through the pity of Pharaoh’s daughter.

                From the perspective of Jochebed (Moses’ mother), this must have seemed like the end of the miracle, and she probably thanked God for saving her son. But this was just the beginning. Which makes me wonder – what in my life has God been orchestrating, is still orchestrating that I just can’t see yet? I don’t have the benefit of hindsight to see where God’s hand has been moving to make me exactly who I am meant to be to fulfill his will and purpose for my life. Someday I will, and I hope I can look back at the times where I’ve struggled, or wondered “why is this happening?” and realize that it was God allowing me to grow, or maybe forcing me to grow, so that I could become something greater and fulfill his plans for me.

                God called Moses, raised by the Egyptians, to fight for his people in an Egyptian court. Who else was better equipped among the Hebrews to do God’s will? And we see the hand of God moving, even in the first few chapters of Exodus, the very beginning. God will never leave us, nor forsake us. He is with us morning, noon and night. His hand upholds us. He is the creator of all things and yet he is with us, each and every moment.

What are the plans he has for you? And in what ways do you see that God has used the circumstances in your past to help you become exactly who he wants you to be right now?