Since this week has been more of relaxed pace I had time to actually sit down and study a few passages of scripture. I camped out in Exodus and Matthew Chapter 6.
The reason I choose Exodus is because on Easter we had nothing better to do with our time so we watched the classic movie “The Ten Commandments.” I had never seen the movie and after viewing it I had a few questions about how closely the movie followed the Bible so I decided to sit down and read for myself. Overall I found the movie did a pretty good job. I did learn a few things upon reading Exodus though.
- Why did God want to kill Moses. When I read Exodus 4:24. I was taken by surprise. Never had I heard this verse read, and I don’t recall ever reading the verse; “at a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses feet with it. Surely you are a bride groom of blood.” My wonderful husband did some research and found that at the time Jews circumcised there children. Moses was going to led the people and as a leader had not followed one of the basic religious practices of the people. The made me start thinking about those who are in leadership positions or want to be that have something standing in the way of them being an effective leader. The verse just really made me think that how we all should take care of the big and little things in our lives to make us more effective for the work of the kingdom.
- Where did all the stuff come from: In the movie “The Ten Commandments” the people were packing to leave the land of bondage. I thought to myself these people are slaves they would not have so much gold, silver, live stock and other material possessions. But as I was reading Exodus I came across another verse I never heard preached upon or even read in church. Exodus 12:35-36 says, “The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people and they gave them what they asked for so they plundered the Egyptians.” I wonder why preachers do not preach about this when they preach about God’s provision for his people. He made sure that the people would be cared for during their time in the dessert. This scripture would be an excellent reference for showing that in trying times God will provide all of our needs. He made the Egyptians feel favorably toward the slaves and they gave them their valuables. As a kid I always pictured the slaves roaming the dessert with only the clothing on their backs, because as a child anytime we learned about slaves we learned about the total reliance they had on their masters for everything (food, clothing, shelter). But to know that God went ahead of them and met their needs before they became needs is an awesome thought.
- All of the signs and the people still did not believe. I can not even think about living in that time and seeing all of the miracles and still doubting God. The plagues, the provision in the dessert of manna, water, parting the Red Sea. But time after time the people complained to Moses and doubted the hand of God. I have really had a personal struggle with doubting God during the last few months. I sometimes wish I had a cloud by day and night to guide my path. I wish that manna would rain down from heaven so that I could see that God still does miracles. While I do not have those visible symbols I do have faith that he is there and he does care for me. I just don’t understand the trials we are going through now. I hope that we can all have faith without all of the signs and wonders that the people of Israel had.
Since this is long I will save Matthew 6 for another post. I have learned a lot from Exodus and Moses this week. I hope that some of you who read this will think about these verses and thoughts and form your own thoughts.