DAILY DEVOTIONALSin Exodus 15. Right before his death, Moses sings a praise song of the Lord to Israel for His faithful deliverance of Israel in spite of their unfaithfulness in Deuteronomy

Vol. 31, No. 4, Fall Quarter, 2021. Editor in Chief: Kyle W. Elkins, [email protected] Manager: Dean Grigsby, [email protected]© 2021, Bogard Press, 4605 N. State Line Ave., Texarkana, TX 75503-2928bogardpress.org; 1-800-264-2482

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DAILY DEVOTIONALS

6

Controlled GenocideExodus 1:13-21

“But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive,” Exodus 1:17.

You are a nurse in the maternity ward of a hospital, and the CEO of the hospital comes to you with demands that you kill all the baby boys under your care or lose your job. Can you imagine such a demand? But this is what the pharaoh demanded of the Hebrew midwives. Instead of losing their jobs, they were in danger of losing their lives if they disobeyed the pharaoh. But the Hebrew midwives feared God more than the pharaoh and obeyed God rather than man. Notice twice in our reading that “the midwives feared God” (verses 17, 21). The midwives reverenced God and feared His judgment much more than the judgment of the pharaoh. To take the life of an innocent child (even the life of the unborn) would bring God’s fierce judgment on them. They put their lives in jeopardy to obey God and save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Hebrew baby boys. It is only when we fear nothing but sin against God and no one but God Himself that we can begin to make wise moral choices. Interestingly, the Bible never mentions the name of the pharaoh, but two names of these Hebrew midwives are given: Shiphrah and Puah (verse 15). Both names bring out the beauty of these two women. They were physically beautiful women, but what is more striking about them is the beauty of their faith in God.

JUST A THOUGHTDo we fear God and faithfully

obey Him as these Hebrew midwives?

Phillip Miller

Monday, August 30

7

Providential CareExodus 2:5, 6, 11-25

“And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children,” Exodus 2:6.

Every good Sunday School boy or girl knows the story of Moses in the ark of bulrushes. Is it just a cute story of a baby in a basket? At Moses birth, his mother recognized that he was a special child, and it is an understatement to say that God had a special purpose for this baby boy. Think of all the Moses’ events in the Bible: his birth, the burning bush, the ten plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the Ten Command-ments and more. God providentially cared for this child and molded him to become Israel’s deliverer. Moses’ name appears eight hundred fifty times in the Bible, just about one hundred less than Jesus’ name. He wrote the first five books of the Bible, and they are often called the Law of Moses. He is the prophet whom Jesus would be like (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18). He is a psalm writer and singer (Exodus 15; Psalm 90). In Heaven, they are still singing the song of Moses (Revelation 15:3). He and Elijah appear with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration (Matthew 17:18). His faith-fulness to God is compared to Jesus’ faithfulness to God (Hebrews 3:1-5). And there was some kind of fight between the devil and Michael the archangel over the body of Moses (Jude 9). Not bad for a baby boy who started out as a basket case. I think it would make a great movie! Oh wait, did they not do that already?

JUST A THOUGHTWhat is God’s special purpose for your life?

Phillip Miller

Tuesday, August 31

8

Praise for DeliverancePsalm 81:1-16

“I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it,” Psalm 81:10.

This psalm of Asaph has the Exodus as its historical backdrop. It is an admonition to praise God for His deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage (verses 1-5). The psalm recounts God’s deliverance (verses 6, 7) and provisions for Israel in the wilderness (verse 7). Based upon the Exodus, God pleaded with His people to listen to Him (verse 8), refrain from idolatrous worship (verse 9) and allow Him to provide for their needs (verse 10) just as He did in the days of the Exodus. But unfortunately, Israel would not listen (verse 11), pursued their own lusts (verse 12) and missed out on God’s blessings (verses 14-16). Just as Asaph reminded Israel of God’s capability to deliver and provide, so too are we reminded by this psalm that the God of the Exodus is our God today and capable of delivering us from our bondage and troubles. He is our God who can fill our needs if we would simply open our mouths (verse 10). But too often, like Israel, we do not listen to God and instead pursue our own lusts. How many blessings we forfeit because we refuse to turn to God and obey Him! Instead of turning to God, who will fill our needs and deliver us from our troubles, we choose to remain in the bondage of the sin of our own lusts.

JUST A THOUGHTGod is capable of delivering us

from our troubles and supplying our needs.

Phillip Miller

Wednesday, September 1

9

A Brief History of IsraelPsalm 105:1-45

“O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people,” Psalm 105:1.

Johnson Oatman, Jr. wrote “Count Your Blessings” but did not always count his blessings. His father just happened to be the best singer in town with a rich, powerful voice. Young Johnson could not sing nearly as well as his father and, as we often do, began to feel sorry for himself. But Johnson worked tirelessly at his music and became an accomplished song writer of as many as five thousand songs. Looking back on his accomplishments, Johnson felt guilty because of his jeal-ousy of his father’s singing voice and realized that God had used him greatly to provide Christians so many songs to sing. Upon this real-ization, Johnson was inspired to write “Count Your Blessings.” This is great advice for us. Psalm 105 rehearses Israel’s history from Abraham, through Exodus, and as far as Joshua when Israel inherited the Promised Land. As Israel remembered all that God had done for them, counting their many blessings, they were commanded to give thanks to the Lord. Too often we focus on what we do not have instead of what we do have. Instead of being discouraged by what we cannot do, be encouraged by seeing what we can do. Instead of counting your troubles, count your blessings. See all that God has done in your life. And then, give thanks to the Lord for all He has done.

JUST A THOUGHTCount your blessings.

Phillip Miller

Thursday, September 2

10

One Greater Than MosesHebrews 3:1-10

“For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house,” Hebrews 3:3.

Moses is mentioned in the Bible more than any other person, except our Lord. A portion of the Old Testament is named after him (Luke 16:31). Many of the great events of the Old Testament involved him: crossing the Red Sea, water from a rock and the Ten Command-ments. Moses is a man worthy of great respect, but he is not God. And he is not Jesus. Our Bible reading for today compares Moses and Jesus, concluding that Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses. Likely, that seems to you to be a no brainer, but the Jews had come very close to worshiping Moses. To the Jews, Moses and the Law of Moses were more important than Jesus. Are we guilty of worshiping someone other than God? Are we guilty of serving someone other than Jesus? Think about it before you rush to an answer. When we place someone ahead of God in our lives, we worship that person as an idol. It could be our spouse, our children or our friends. When someone tells us to do something contrary to what God tells us to do and we obey that person instead of God, that person has just become more important than God to us. Now, are you guilty?

JUST A THOUGHTHere is the truth: No one deserves

to be in control of your life except God.

Phillip Miller

Friday, September 3

11

The Song of Moses Revelation 15:1-8

“And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord

God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints,” Revelation 15:3.

Three songs are ascribed to Moses in the Bible. Moses and the chil-dren of Israel sing a song of victory after the crossing of the Red Sea in Exodus 15. Right before his death, Moses sings a praise song of the Lord to Israel for His faithful deliverance of Israel in spite of their unfaithfulness in Deuteronomy 32. Psalm 90 was written by Moses in praise to the Lord and is also a repentant song begging for God’s mercy. So which song of Moses are they singing in Revelation 15:3? The setting is the introduction of the seven vial judgments of God during the Tribulation Period. It is God’s final judgment, called the wrath of God, upon the earth. The saints in Heaven are singing songs of victory, celebrating God’s judgment on the beast of the Tribulation (antichrist). Likely it is the victory song of Exodus 15 that they are singing, as it is a song of victory as God delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage and the pursuing the Egyptian army. So too, these Tribula-tion saints will sing a song of victory as God will have delivered them from the antichrist’s persecution. How is the victory won? “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 12:11). This is why they also sing the song of the Lamb! So too, we can sing “Victory in Jesus” because we have victory in Him!

JUST A THOUGHTWe can sing songs of victory

because we have victory in Jesus.

Phillip Miller

Saturday, September 4

12

Phillip Miller

Moses’ ChoiceHebrews 11:24-27

“By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,” Hebrews 11:24.

Moses received the best of Egypt as “the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” Wealth, education and privilege were all his as he was being groomed to be an important ruler in Egypt. But something placed in his heart at an early age by his mother, Jochebed and the Lord Himself moved Moses to make a very important decision when he was forty years old. The event is recorded in Exodus 2:11-15. Even before this event, Moses had made the decision to side with the Hebrews (he calls them brethren in verse 11) instead of the Egyptians. He killed an Egyptian taskmaster for beating a Hebrew slave but spoke kindly to a Hebrew encouraging him not to strike his fellow brother. Whatever else we might say of Moses’ actions here, we can be sure that Moses had made the decision not “to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter” and instead chose “to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin” in Egypt (Hebrews 11:24, 25). He forsook all to follow God’s plan for his life. We, too, face the same decision every day. Will we side with the sinful world or the God of our salvation? Will we follow after the wealth and pleasures of this world or seek the true riches of God and follow His plan for our lives?

JUST A THOUGHTYour choice: follow the sins

of the world or serve the Lord.

Sunday, September 5

13

God Gave Moses a MessageExodus 3:15-22

“And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go,” Exodus 3:20.

I am sure this is not the first time you have read the event of Moses and the burning bush. The event was miraculous, and the message was just as powerful. God called Moses to deliver His message of deliver-ance. It goes without saying that God’s message is true, and it would come to pass just as He said. What the pharaoh and the Egyptians should have done was to do exactly what God told Moses to speak, “Let my people go” (Exodus 5:1). And they were also welcomed to go with Israel into the wilderness to worship God, and some of them did. (See “mixed multitude” in Exodus 12:38.) An enormous amount of pain and suffering could have been avoided if the Pharaoh and the Egyptians would have obeyed God. Though not exactly the same, God has given us a message of deliv-erance as well. We are to tell the world that Jesus saves! We are to tell sinners how they can be delivered from their sins and receive the righ-teousness of God in Jesus Christ. It is not the pharaoh who stands in the way of deliverance for sinners but their own rebellion and rejection of the message of salvation. An enormous amount of pain and suffering in hell could be avoided if sinners would simply obey God. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:31).

JUST A THOUGHTGod has given us a message.

Phillip Miller

Monday, September 6