Day 43 Bible Reading

Exodus 11-12, Matthew 27: 1-44, Psalm 22: 12-21

Exodus 12: 36 (ESV)

“And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.”

I like verse 36 from Exodus 12. God told Moses that when his people left Egypt in Exodus 4 that “you shall plunder the Egyptians, and this verse is the fulfillment of what God said. But I am very sure that when Moses first heard God say this, he didn’t expect it to happen in the way that it did happen. I have prayed to God to grant me things and situations for years, and never once did they ever come about exactly the way I had pictured them in my head. But when your prayers are answered, you experience first-hand the fulfillment of God’s plan but never it seems in the way you thought it was going to happen.

Day 42 Bible Reading

Exodus 9 & 10, Matthew 69-75, Matthew 27: 1-10, Psalm 22: 1-11

Psalm 22: 1-2 (ESV)

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.”

Verses 1 to 2 from Psalm 22 has probably been uttered by every Christian at some point in their life. Christ himself quoted verse 1 from Psalm 22 from the cross. Thoughts like these come up when we are going through a dark season in our life, and we don’t hear an answer from God. Our patience is stretched thin and we come to this dark place where we have the greatest doubt in God. Our faith is being tested as we wait to hear from God. I know I have had these thoughts many times. The only thing that saves me is when I remember how many times God has been faithful to me and answered my prayers. I think it’s the waiting that gets us. I was listening to a commentary on Exodus about the plagues and scholars have said the plagues took place over a year. Moses had to wait a long time to accomplish this first part of his mission. The silence also gets us as well, at least it does me. If I don’t get a hint of an answer from God, I feel abandoned. The patience and the silence engender feelings of extreme abandonment in me. In these times, I have to cling to faith as hard as I can, like a drowning person trying to keep above the water. But God always comes through, even though it seems to take a long time.

Day 41 Bible Reading

Exodus 6: 12-30, Exodus 7-8, Matthew 26: 47-68, Psalm 21: 8-13

Matthew 26: 53-54 (ESV)

“Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?””

Verses 53 to 54 from Matthew 26 remind that Jesus is the model by which we must surrender to God’s will for our lives. Jesus knew he was going to his death when he was arrested, but he submitted it to his fate so what was prophesized in the Old Testament would come true. It struck me one day when I remembered that Jesus was called the “lamb of God” and in Jewish culture lambs have been used a sacrifice, that Jesus was always going to be sacrificed to take away our sins. We had a foreshadowing of Jesus’ death when Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac, but he did not. God was going to sacrifice his only son to free us from sin. Was Jesus always so sure of his submission? No, because he asked on that same night that the burden be taken away from him. The human part of him asked, but the divine in him surrendered to his father’s will. I have never been in the position of having to sacrifice my life for God, but I have had to sacrifice things that sometimes felt just as horrific such as my ego. The death of your ego is like a physical death in so many ways, but it’s not. And when I do manage to give something precious up to me, God always rewarded me in one way or another. And if felt like one door closed and another chapter in my life was closed, so a new chapter and a new door could be opened. And it always worked out if I reminded myself to surrender like Jesus to the plan for my life.

Day 40 Bible Reading

Exodus 4-5, 6: 1-12, Matthew 26: 31-46, Psalm 21: 1-7

Exodus 4: 10-12 (ESV)

“But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.””

Verses 10 through 12 from Exodus 4 makes me think of all the excuses I have given God as to why I’m not capable of some of the tasks he’s give me. I’m not this or that or whatever. But these verses remind us that God created everything and if he is with us, then he can help us figure out how to get the task done if we rely on him for help. It is amusing to think of God doing some earthly mundane task like “asking a boss for a raise”, but if that is the task God wants me to do then he must know the best way to get it done and have the best outcome. And if God helped Moses deliver his people out of slavery in Egypt, then God is surely capable of helping us with our tasks which probably aren’t as nearly impossible as what Moses had before him.