February 6, 2012

Justice for All (2/6)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from Exodus 22-24.

“You shall not bear a false report; do not join your hand with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not follow the masses in doing evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after a multitude in order to pervert justice; nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his dispute” (Exodus 23:1-3).

In giving the Law to the Israelites, God emphasized the importance of justice being carried out properly among the people. This passage teaches us a few things about justice that would be good for us to remember today:
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February 5, 2012

Life for Life (2/5)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from Exodus 19-21.

“If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise” (Exodus 21:22-25).

Capital punishment for murder has been a divine rule since the end of the flood (Genesis 9:6). Today, governments continue to “bear the sword” to punish evildoers as part of their divinely ordained role (Romans 13:4).

But this case that is addressed in the Law is a little different than most murder cases. This involved an unborn child. In the event that someone’s action against that unborn child led to his/her death, the offender would be subject to the same penalty as if he had murdered another grown man.
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February 4, 2012

Pots of Meat and Plenty of Bread (2/4)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from Exodus 16-18.

It did not take long for the Israelites who had seen the destruction of Pharaoh and his army to begin murmuring and complaining.

“The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The sons of Israel said to them, ‘Would that we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger’” (Exodus 16:2-3).

How quickly they forgot the conditions they had endured in Egypt – forced labor, cruel beatings, and lacking the freedom to worship God according to His instructions. By this point, all they wanted to remember was the fact that they had food to eat and, though the circumstances may not have been ideal, they had sufficient security and stability to expect that those “pots of meat” would continue to be available.
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February 3, 2012

They Saw the Egyptians Dead on the Seashore (2/3)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from Exodus 13-15.

Following the tenth plague, Pharaoh finally consented to let the children of Israel go. But after they had departed, he changed his mind and pursued them. This led to one of the memorable events of the Bible: the crossing of the Red Sea. God parted the waters; the Israelites crossed on dry ground; the Egyptians followed; the water closed back up and destroyed Pharaoh and his great army.

“Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. When Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in His servant Moses” (Exodus 14:30-31).

God delivered the people from those that threatened them. Once God was through here, the Israelites no longer had to worry about Pharaoh. They could plainly see the evidence of the Egyptians’ destruction with their own eyes.
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February 2, 2012

God’s Plan for You

Sunrise

“‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope’” (Jeremiah 29:11).

People often wonder what God’s plan is for their lives. The above passage suggests that God knows these plans. Yet people want to know what the future holds so badly that they often run wild in speculation about every circumstance, decision, or consequence that exists in their lives, trying to determine some greater significance to these events.

The Bible certainly does address this issue about God’s plan for our lives. But we can only know what God has revealed to us (1 Corinthians 2:10-12). People often get caught up in trying to find God’s plan for them in the details of life – jobs, homes, hardships, etc. – even though no such divine plans for us can be found in the revealed will of God. By devoting our mental effort to mere curiosities and speculations, it becomes easier to ignore the big picture. Sadly, many have done this and have become “choked with worries… of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity” (Luke 8:14).

I know what God’s plan is for you. And I can show you this plan in the Bible.
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February 2, 2012

Tell Your Sons and Your Grandsons (2/2)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from Exodus 10-12.

The plagues with which God afflicted Pharaoh and the nation of Egypt were designed to do a couple of things: to cause Pharaoh to let the people go and to prove to all who heard of these events that the Lord was the one true God over all things. But this was not only for the benefit of that generation. It was to help those of future generations to develop their own faith as well.

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am the Lord’” (Exodus 10:1-2).

Those who descended from Moses’ generation needed to know about these works of God. They needed to hear of His miracles. They needed to be told of the foolish and futile attempts of the Egyptians to oppose the Lord. If the future generations were not told, they could not know.
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February 1, 2012

God Reminds Pharaoh of His Place before Him (2/1)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from Exodus 7-9.

After suffering through several plagues, Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let the Israelites go into the wilderness to worship God. After the sixth plague, God told Moses to deliver a message to Pharaoh, reminding him of his place before the Lord.

“Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, ‘Let My people go, that they may serve Me. For this time I will send all My plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth. For if by now I had put forth My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth. But, indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth. Still you exalt yourself against My people by not letting them go’” (Exodus 9:13-17).

These words were meant to remind Pharaoh of some facts he had allowed himself to ignore:
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