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So glad you’re with us this week! Now I want to warn you that I’ll be returning to a former writing style this week & next which incorporates the Monday thru Friday (5 day) devotional focus. There’s SO much to cover in Moses’ life that it seems that’s the only way I could break it down. So be careful if you take the whole week’s reading in one sitting! I hope this finds you and your loved ones blessed. At our age things can change in a heartbeat, so every moment is a gift from God. I think we all realize that more every day! So here we go with the middle section of the man whom God referred to in Numbers 12:3 as “the most humble man on the face of the earth”….Moses. MONDAY… “Beating Around the BUSH” (Exodus 3 & 4) The voice of God can sometimes catch us off-guard. Especially if we haven’t heard Him say anything for 40 years! God picks up where Moses left off previously, which was him trying to deliver God’s people. The only problem was Moses was way too early! The people hadn’t even “prayed enough” yet for their cries to reach heaven (3:9). But NOW is time for God to come deliver His people. He apparently doesn’t begin to do that until they are ready to receive His help and rightly so! So God might have said, “Moses, I’ve got good news and bad news”. The good news is I’ve come to deliver my people from the same bitter slavery YOU wanted to deliver them from. And the bad news is I’ve chosen YOU to go do it, just like you wanted to last time, but I know it’s not nearly as appealing to you this time as it was last. But the good news is I will be with you every step of the way (3:12). Now if you read the 2 chapters in one sitting, you’ll feel the tension, the resistance from Moses, the hope and help from God Almighty, and you’ll most likely be “more than frustrated with Moses” as God was! The word today is RELUCTANCE. Every reason Moses manufactured for God in this encounter indicated it had been a “long intermission” for him and he had NO interest in delivering the people he stood up for who never even sent a search party out for him in those 40 years! Here’s the LIST OF EXCUSES. We all have our own at times, but here are Moses’. 1…WHO AM I? (3:11) Moses pulled the old “low self-esteem” number on the Lord. But God wasn’t permitting that. His comeback was “I will be with you!” I’m not asking you to go “solo”, Moses! I’ve heard their prayers and I’ve come down to rescue them and deliver them to a sweet place of “milk & honey”! But YOU are the one I want leading those people out of slavery Moses! 2…WHO DO I TELL THEM YOU ARE? (3:14) Like God is going to need 2 forms of ID for this! Well since you asked, Moses, here’s what my friends call Me, “I AM WHO I AM”. YAHWEH. The God of your Ancestors. You know…Abraham, Isaac, Jacob…the big guns long BEFORE you! God doesn’t give Moses a chance to get a word in edgewise! He says, “Go & call together the ELDERS”, which is always a good place to start. We’ve got a team to build here! The ASK of “Pharaoh” will be a 3 Day Trip of ALL my people, ALL their families and ALL their LIVESTOCK! Now he won’t let you go. But I’ll raise My hand and STRIKE the Egyptians and SPARE you! You guys will make off like bandits because I’ll also prompt the hearts of the Egyptians to show you favor and you’ll get gift after gift! But this didn’t seem to appease Moses! And Moses hurries on to the next objection he has for God. 3…WHAT IF THEY DON’T BELIEVE ME & DOUBT YOU APPEARED TO ME? (4:1) God now rolls up His sleeves and says, “Watch this!” He asks Moses what’s in his hand? And when Moses’ staff turns into a snake, the NLT says he “jumped back”. If I were God, I would’ve said, “Made you flinch!” But after changing the “staff to a snake and back to a staff”, God has Moses put his hand in his cloak, which comes out leprous and then He heals it in the next moment. God forecasts the “Nile River to blood” miracle, letting him know what’s coming up,but for some reason Moses remains “reluctant” to sign on. So on to the next reason why not to be used by God….. 4…I CAN’T TALK VERY GOOD…I HEM & HAW (4:10) Now in Stephen’s speech in Acts 7, he mentions that Moses had “excellency of speech”, which was not the way Moses remembered it. But he would have been trained in all the finest educational disciplines of Egypt and oratory was one! Moses was actually having a “Jeff Foxworthy moment” which could best be described as “I usta could”, but not so much anymore! Look at God’s comeback. “Who made the human mouth, Moses”? And He promises to instruct Moses the whole way. But the “Hebrew born / Egyptian raised / Midianite married-in / 40 year veteran shepherd” didn’t want to return to the place where such an embarrassing time of FAILURE happened in his life. I think that had something to do with his reluctance. I’m thinking he was feeling, “I stunk the place up last time, Lord, don’t make me go back there!” And here’s the big one that got Moses (and will get us) in major trouble…. 5…PLEASE SEND SOMEBODY (ANYBODY) ELSE! (4:13) OK, up until now, Moses pushes back as God pushes forward. But at this point, Moses “PUNCHES OUT”. No, Moses, don’t clock out! Maybe stay RELUCTANT, but for crying out loud, DON’T GO RESISTANT! But he does. And notice the unmistakable first 7 words of 4:14, “Then the Lord became angry with Moses.” Oh my, he’s crossed the line now. And yet as He realizes the guy is crying for help, God graciously volunteers his brother Aaron. I’ll talk to you Moses. You’ll tell Aaron exactly what I said. And Aaron will tell Pharaoh what you said. It’s gonna take a lot longer, but you’re not getting off the hook, Moses. Now pick up your staff and go STAND IN MY PLACE before Pharaoh. Have you ever wondered why Moses was so reluctant and then resistant? I’m guessing the same reason WE many times are with God. Our woundedness from the past that has soured us and given us an aversion to the promptings of God. And it takes a “burning bush pivotal moment” to get beyond it. And in Moses’ defense, God was asking him to go back to see loved ones who he didn’t even know if they were alive. To go face people who, last he knew, hated him and wanted him dead. To lead people who didn’t want to be led. To ask a hostile leader to give over his entire workforce without questioning. To face his wife, knowing they would need to make their boys “Jewish” if he returned. (We’ll get to that one a little later). You see, this would be a moment Moses would have to declare himself to be Jewish not only “ethnically”, but also now “spiritually”. God’s invitation to be the deliverer of His people had a lot of personal implications for him! Wow! What a load to unpack on a Monday! It’s a very important passage in Scripture. This encounter gave us the phrase “standing on holy ground”, which is a great reminder that WHEREVER we meet God is holy ground! And God’s holiness will always reveal our unholiness. Moses isn’t the only one to experience this. Later on in the New Testament, Peter, after hearing Jesus preach and then talking with Him said, “Depart from me, Lord, because I am a sinful man”. But God doesn’t want us to depart. He wants us to STAY and watch the “bush continue to burn”. Even if we “beat around it” for longer than He hoped we would! Take a moment today to stay with God in an honest conversation of what you sense He’s prompting you to do next. Even if you don’t have a clue! In time, we’ll hear His voice. We just need to keep watching the fire burn and listening for HIS voice! And we’ll see you all tomorrow hope! TUESDAY… ”GOD vs. gods” & “PLAGUE after Plague” (Exodus 5-11) OK, I promise to get to the point quicker today! Wait a second. We’ve got 10 plagues to cover as well as a pre-game and post-game show! So here we go! The PRE-GAME… There’s always some events that happen when a major transition is about to take place. After God’s talk with Moses at the Burning Bush, some things happen worth noting. Here they are in sequence from 3:18-31. Some seem normal and some seem a little odd. 1…Moses WENT HOME and told his father-in-law, Jethro. It’s good for Jethro to know first, since a daughter & grandkids are involved. This was respectful culturally and relationally. Notice Moses’ acknowledgment that he’s not even sure any of his family is alive. This seems like a very justifiable request. And notice that after Moses makes this “first move of obedience”, God reassures him that those back in Egypt who wanted Moses dead are dead themselves, so no worries there. 2…Moses PACKED his family and LEFT for Egypt. He was travelling light. A donkey, his wife and sons, and the staff. Don’t forget the staff & see how it is now called the “staff of God”, not the shepherd’s staff of Moses! 3…God spoke again, REMINDING Moses of the instructions and CONFRONTING him and was ready to kill him. Here’s the first “odd one”. God says I’ll do miracles when you get there but Pharaoh will refuse, so you tell him that Israel is “My son” and since he refuses to let My son come worship Me, I will take the life of his firstborn son. OK, it makes sense up to this point. But the next phrase in vs 24 says God was about to kill Moses. What’s up with that? Anytime you come to a “problematic passage” in the Bible, just look around at the next verse and there usually is a hint of what & why this is going on. Was God pouting or regretting He’d chosen Moses? I don’t think so. But we have to see what happens next to make sense out of this whole “mad enough to kill him” thing. 4…Moses’ wife, Zipporah “begrudgingly” CIRCUMCISED their son. OK, that’s a piece of the puzzle. As a Moabite woman, she has some seemingly resentful words for her Hebrew husband concerning this “covenant sign” of circumcision that apparently was mandatory for little boys. This wasn’t the 8th day as commanded in Genesis 17, which would have been less painful and less memorable for everybody involved! Moses’ “parental spiritual homework” is past due. Why was this such an angering thing for God? It was inherently disrespectful of the covenant. Obedience is a progressive & ongoing experience in our spiritual growth. This was basic stuff. And Moses hadn’t taken his boys to Sunday School. Perhaps it was a “tough sell” to Midianite culture? But God doesn’t seem to want to move ahead if Moses hasn’t taken care of that. How’s a guy gonna lead a nation if he hasn’t aligned his home? So Zipporah takes care of things….and God leaves Moses alone (vs 26). 5…God told AARON to go meet Moses. But he didn’t tell him the plan, He let Moses do that. They embrace. Moses tells all. 6…Moses & Aaron head back to Egypt and GET THE ISRAELI ELDERS TOGETHER. It’s always a good thing to let your leaders hear things direct! Aaron speaks, Moses performs the miracles, and they all watch and are convinced God has sent them. Their hearts are touched when they are told God was concerned about them & seen their misery and their response to that is to bow and worship. So the team is assembled. We’ve got a united front, at least for now. And things are about to intensify because God is “jealously & zealously” pursuing His people wanting to free them! (there’s a reason those 2 words rhyme!) 7…Moses & Aaron go TALK TO PHARAOH. The request is clear. Let My people go hold a festival in the wilderness to honor their God. Pharaoh asks WHO this God is and WHY should he let them go? And since he didn’t KNOW this God the answer is NO! Moses & Aaron persist as Pharaoh resists accusing them of “distracting” the people from their work. So he withholds straw, but still requires the same amount of bricks to be made by the Hebrews slave force, which became a major burden of “locating straw” for the people. After the foremen are whipped since they couldn’t maintain that quota, the blame falls on Moses & Aaron. Moses questions God once again for sending him for this task and God then does what God does. He REASSURES the promise of His deliverance in the next 8 verses! Now there is a key phrase in 6:9 of how Moses told the Israelites what God said “but they refused to listen anymore since they had become TOO DISCOURAGED by the brutality of their slavery.” It can happen. To anyone of us. When our “slavery” wears us out, it’s hard to hear God’s assurance of His presence & deliverance, but that’s when we need to hear it the most! Moses objects in usual fashion as God tells him to head back to Pharaoh. He’s stuck on an I CAN’T mentality but God counters with an I CAN! And in verse 13 God “gives orders” as He commands them to “lead the people out of Egypt”. God isn’t taking no for an answer. After a brief ANCESTRY.COM moment of lineage of Moses & Aaron, God does further coaching in chapter 7 and the Hebrews brothers “take it to Pharaoh” and while the magicians could pull off the “snake to a rod” trick, Moses’ staff swallows their staffs which brings that show to and end! But Pharaoh resists and the plagues begin. The PLAGUE by PLAGUE (which directly corresponded to the 10 false gods of Egypt). Here’s the list in order of appearance…. Pharaoh relents & reneges after every plague. 1…the NILE TO BLOOD (magicians could imitate as well) 2…FROGS (magicians had this one in their pocket too) 3…GNATS (magicians struck out on this one acknowledging God can but we can’t) 4…FLIES (first time a clear distinction between Hebrews & Egyptians) This time Pharaoh “negotiates” counter offering with you can leave but don’t go too far & even asks Moses to pray for him. But Moses confronts his “lies as he removes the flies” and gets ready for the next plague. 5…LIVESTOCK (again God makes a distinction of disease on mine vs yours) 6…BOILS (Pharaoh watches Moses toss the soot in the air to bring the boils. His magicians are so affected they can’t even stand & try to this one off.) 7…HAIL (God tells Moses to tell Pharaoh “I’ve got more plagues than you can handle” and that He had “spared him for a purpose”, which was to “show His power and spread His fame”. Amazing how God still wants us to do the same although in a very different way! Pharaoh acknowledges his sin and begs for it to end. Moses says, OK, but I know you still don’t fear the Lord! 8…LOCUST (More negotiating with this one. God tells Moses to resubmit the demands so they’ll be able to tell their kids & grandkids how awesome their God is! The coming locust will take what little remaining resource there is in Egypt. Pharaoh’s officials appeal to him and he acquiesces. He suggests to Moses to make it a Men’s Retreat but leave the families there in Egypt. It doesn’t fly and Moses gets tossed out on the spot. 9…DARKNESS (Pharaoh again negotiates, saying you can take the kids but leave your livestock, to which Moses argued they’d never be able to sacrifice to the Lord that way. And pharaoh draws a line in the sand this time, in saying the next time I see your face you’ll die. Moses gives a respectful, “have it your way” and leaves. 10…FIRSTBORN (This one is painful to imagine. Chapter 11 tells us Moses was respected by the Egyptian people and that God caused them to “look favorably” on the Israelites. He’d told Pharaoh what would happen at midnight with the death of the firstborn.) Tomorrow, we’ll take brief look at the Passover itself. We covered a lot today! And yesterday as well. The remainder of the week becomes a look at an event each day, but not multiple events at a time, so it should go much quicker! Or at least, that’s my intent! Bless you, Finishing Well family! WEDNESDAY… “a Painful PASSOVER” (Exodus 12:1-30) Now if Monday’s word was RELUCTANCE and yesterday’s was RESISTANCE, then let’s name today’s phrase is RESOLVED & READY. That’s what the Israelites were at this point. Unified after the most devastating day in all of Egypt’s history bar none….the death of the first-born. If you could take a moment just to simply read those 30 verses early in chapter 12….. We begin with God telling Moses & Aaron in verses 1-20. Then in verses 21 -27, Moses calls the elders and passes that on nearly word for word. Now we’ll cover the EXODUS itself tomorrow in 12:31-42… So let’s look at the essence of what was the 1st Passover for Moses & the Jewish people. The list begins with….. Choosing a lamb or young goat. Each family does this & there is participation by the whole community. Smaller families can share with other smaller families depending how there are and how much they’ll eat. It has to be a 1 year-old sheep or goat and must have NO DEFECTS. Now here’s what’s cool about it. They were to take “special care” of this animal for 4 whole days before the slaughtering would take place. Enough time to name him and have him endeared to the wife & kids. There are many parallels in this typology preceding Jesus, the Messiah. I’m sure you picked up on the “endearing & no blemish” part already. Some of the blood of the lamb was to be smeared on the sides and top of the doorframe of the house. (Think “blood-stained cross “as a visual for all the Israelites one day to see Jesus upon!) the lamb was to be eaten the same night, roasted over a fire, with bitter salad & greens, and bread made WITHOUT yeast! Not to be eaten raw or boiled! Include the organ meat. Don’t leave it til the next morning, but rather burn what’s not eaten. The list gets longer! Eat it with your sandals on & fully dressed & your walking stick in your hand! They were to have a sense of “urgency” because this belonged to the LORD. God made sure they understood He would pass thru and strike every firstborn son (even animals) passing judgment on those who DID NOT HAVE the blood of the doorpost frame, Also, for 7 days, they were not to eat bread with yeast. There’s NO TIME for the bread to rise! And no WORK of any kind was to be done. They were to be YEAST-FREE before they went GLUTEN free! So the people did EXACTLY what their told….all 600k of them plus women & kids. No outsiders welcome. Not even temporary residents. “Circumcised & purchased” slaves were welcome. Even “temps” had to go home. And no broken bones. No meat carried outside the camp. Everybody had to be IN on the whole thing! (Some of the further instructions end the chapter in verses 43-51) This was one of the most SERIOUS moments in Moses’ life, and all the Jewish people, for that matter. I’m not sure there is any way to “simulate” this event. The cries coming out from Egypt could never be erased from their memories. They realized “there by the grace of God there go you & I”. Now just around Easter time, we’ll be looking at Passover and it’s fulfillment in Easter of Jesus being our “Passover Lamb”. I’m actually having a friend Gordon Kushner, write the devo that week. Gordon and his wife, Rachel ,are Messianic Christians (believers), which means they grew up Jewish but accepted Jesus as the promised Savior of the world. He’ll give us a great added perspective on this incredible holiday, which coincides with Easter. As I mentioned, today is a short look at a powerful passage. How hard would it have been on the children in the families as they had to kill the animal who had become their pet? How painful to hear their Egyptian neighbors’ cries? How pressured did they feel getting the flatbread ready? How concerned they’d not get a lamb or goat with a “hidden blemish”? How “worried & hurried” all the way around in this new festival with a new name that signified “death passing over them”! It was a holy moment for families. Every household had the same experience. Tears for the animal. Tears for their neighbors. Being packed and ready to roll in a heartbeat. Bitter herbs which represented the 430 years of abuse & slavery. Blood dripping down the doorposts. Every doorpost! And today we call that moment “the Lord’s Supper” or “communion” as we “remember” with a cracker and sip of juice every week. Every time we formally, corporately come together in His name. It was a foreshadow of what was to come! But it all began that night. For people who had just seen plagues and things they never dreamed possible! And now the unimaginable is about to happen. Leaving town tomorrow to do God only knows what. And to go God only knows where! As you pray today, take a moment to reflect on just what the leaders that God appointed thru the years (like Moses) had to deal with. May we be people of great faith in our own calling. Humble, dependent, and willing to overcome our inadequacies, just as Moses did in order to bring glory to the God who wants His people to go free! Blessings. Catch you tomorrow. THURSDAY… “a Long Awaited EXODUS” (Exodus 12:31-13:22) What’s 430 years among friends? It’s 430 years, that’s what it is! But it appears to have taken that long, not for God to respond, but for the people to CRY OUT to Him! Think about that with me. Weren’t they crying out to God ALL that time? I guess not. There’s a difference between “complaining about our circumstances” and “making our requests known unto the Lord”. Just as Paul says in Philippians 4, we are to “not worry about anything but pray about everything”. We’re to do that with grateful hearts and without anxiety. And then the peace of God which “transcends understanding” will guard our minds & hearts in Christ Jesus. But just as we might find the Israelites’ attitude frustrating, so others might find ours that way as well as we worry or complain about circumstances that seem overwhelming to us at times. But right now, the “train is about to leave the station” and the Israelites are headed out of Egypt. Notice in 12:31-42 as Pharaoh tells them to “hightail it” and go worship their God. And take your animals as well. But before you go, he asks Moses to bless him. So they leave, and as they do, the Egyptian people bless them with gold & silver because God had made them “favorable” in their eyes. And did you notice in 12:41 that it was 430 years “to the day” that they had been in Egypt? God keep His promises to the “T”. Now today might seem like a short devotional coverage. And it should be. To leave you time to reflect on YOUR Passover of sorts. When has God gotten you out of a situation or relationship or less than encouraging pattern of behavior? He brings us out when our focus and dependence is on Him. And He usually brings a friend alongside to aid in our need for perspective, courage or any other form of motivation. But make no mistake, if we are delivered from a tendency, an addiction, a haunting memory or a paralyzing fear, it is by HIS GRACE and usually in HIS time when we cooperate with Him. It took Moses a while to get on board. It took the Israelites 430 years. It’s take me more time than it should have in many areas of my life and still have several to go! Today will we let Him pull us up a step at a time? A memory at a time? A discipline at a time? A friend at a time? Love you guys....and looking forward to getting thru the Red Sea with you tomorrow! FRIDAY… “Rockin’ the RED SEA” (Exodus 14-15) I hope it’s been a good week for you. The weather was supposed to have gotten a little better. But just the moment you think you can put up your winter coat, the weather can change! And just the moment the Israelites thought they were headed to spiritual freedom in a dramatic rescue by the Mighty Hand of God, here comes Pharoah and the Egyptian armies in hot pursuit! Moses led them out of slavery & out of Egypt, but sometimes quick changes like that can leave you more dizzy than a few laps on the Jeffersonville Roundabout, which by the way, there’s nothing ROUND ABOUT it! It’s just a “series of squiggles”! But I digress. All that to say, the Israelites are a little off-balance at this point. They were “out of the PYRAMIDS, but not out of the WOODS”. And here comes Pharaoh. The people are scared & here’s no place to turn. Their faith begins to fail for the most part. Now if we could back up a moment in chapter 13, God reiterates the “Dedication of the Firstborn” for Moses and all of Israel. What better time to tell the people their firstborn belongs to the Lord than right after Passover! He takes 16 verses to explain how this major holiday allows them to explain to their kids thru the years how they were rescued with the strong hand of the Lord. After establishing that understanding, God leads the people on a bit of a detour, not along the main road, which would have been the shortest route to the Promised Land. The reason is seen in verse 17, as God explains they might change their mind if met with a tough battle and want to return to Egypt and their former slavery. Now some cool things are mentioned….. the bones of Joseph made the trip. He didn’t want to be stuck in the pyramids and you might remember his final request was bring me with you when God delivers us, even though there was no slavery for them back then. God was also going ahead of the nation guiding them by a pillar of cloud by day (nice to have shade) and a pillar of fire by night (nothing like a little warmth and a maintenance-free night light). And in chapter 14, God instructed Moses to have the Israelites camp by the shore which would cause Pharoah in his pursuit to think they were confused and trapped and then he couldn’t resist the thought of recapturing them. He’s lost every hand dealt to him so far in dealing with Moses. Word gets to Pharaoh the Hebrews might be vulnerable and the chase is on. Now verse 8 mentions something I’ve not noticed before. The NLT says the Israelites left Egypt “with fists raised in defiance”, which makes me think in the NFL it would have been a penalty for “taunting”! I’m assuming the temptation to gloat a little and thumb their nose at the Pharaoh and his abusive “task masters”. So this might’ve set him up a little for a tour of vengeance. When the Israelites see the Egyptians are about to overtake them they cry out to the Lord and complain to Moses. Those are 2 different things. One is a holy prayer and the other is taking a shot at an easy guy to blame. They literally say “they’d rather be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the desert”. Notice in verse 14, that Moses steps up and becomes the “gentle shepherd” they need at that point. You see he has inside information from God! And he believes God totally at this point. Up til now, he had some weak moments but he crosses the line of faith right now! He tells the people to “not be afraid”. To just stand and watch the Lord rescue them today. That they’ll never see these Egyptians again. That the Lord HIMSELF will fight for them. And finally he says, “just calm down”! reminds me of a Saturday Night Live skit with Cheri O’Terias the waitress saying, “Simmer down now, simmer down”! Way to take control of the situation Moses! It’s amazing what a little private info in a powerful God can do! Then notice in verse 15, God tells Moses to quit crying out to Him and tell the people to get moving! Pick up your staff, raise your hand and “Bus driver….move that bus”! Sorry, my bad. “Moses, part that Sea!” So he raised his hand over the sea and God opened a path as the wind blew all that night turning the seabed into dry land! Meanwhile, the angel of the Lord moves to the rear of the camp blocking any access and removing any thought of Pharaoh attacking the people. The Israelites go thru “all night long”, Moses raises his hand again and the water walls crash down, but not until all the Egyptian army with chariots steering like a bad grocery cart at Kroger’s convince them that God was fighting for His people. And the chapter ends with Israel identifying the Egyptian bodies on the seashore and beginning to FINALLY realize God was a powerful God and Moses, a worthy servant in whom they could put their faith! Then Miriam shakes her tambourine as Moses and the people sing a song that re-emerged in the 80’s in churches if you remember…. “I will sing unto the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider fell into the sea”. I came out about the time we were moving from hymnals to overheads and before laptops got involved in worship production. I know. We’re that old. But I remember it like it was 40 years ago, which it ironically was! Let’s wind this puppy down. All this would’ve put Moses in the “Hall of Faith”, but he’s just getting started! Have you ever felt like that? You’ve seen a lot of life. Plenty of joys and your share of hardships and yet you’re not done? We’re not done til we’re done or until He comes….and then we’re ALL done! Moses has navigated the “return”. He’s made it through the first obstacle which is “getting on board with God”. He had to face his fears, his failures and his family. He’s got a long way to go. We haven’t even gotten to the 10 Commandments, the Tabernacle, the Good Spies/Bad Spies, the water from the rock, manna from heaven, quail because they wanted to go KETO, his sister Miriam and brother Aaron TURNING on him with a palace coup, dealing with his nephews deaths as they violate their role as priests and seemingly show up drunk to offer the priestly fire on opening day, the Golden Calf idol which brought about a “redo” on the 10 Commandments, a rebellion by a “yahoo” named Korah, and Moses coming to “end of himself” asking God to just “take me home now” which prompts God to put his Spirit on 70 other “shepherd-types” to “bear the burden of the people together with you” (Numbers 211:17) Of course we can’t cover all that in depth, but next week we’ll end with “Part 3 of Moses Finishing Well” touching on the 10 Commandments on Monday / the Tabernacle on Tuesday / Leviticus on Wednesday / Numbers on Thursday & Deuteronomy on Friday. Just a brief overview of each. Although “brief and my name” are RARELY in the same sentence, I’m told! Now I know you’re on board or you would not be reading this. But if not, we have to get BACK on board, as Moses did, don’t we? God wants to use you in your life to do MANY more things for his glory! In your marriage, your family, your friendships, & your local church and beyond! May your dwelling on His Word in this supplemental effort be used by God to assist you in “imparting it to others” in YOUR own way….in the relationships that HE ALONE could orchestrate for you! Our families & world need the hope that can only be found in a friendship with God thru His Son Jesus Christ. May we encourage one another to RE-ENLIST in this season of our lives. To study, converse, pray, serve and follow the Lord “wholeheartedly” as we’ll see that Caleb did (one of the good spies & good guys) in our reading next week. As always…..love you guys…. May God give an incredible week as we do our best to help each other…FINISH WELL, george
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