February 23-27

“Let My people go so they can worship Me in the wilderness”








What is that he said? Did he just say, “No” to God again?!? Yep! That’s what I heard! Here God is, sending Moses to deliver His people, but before He can do that, He has to deliver Moses!!! Obviously, Moses can’t get over himself and his failures! He is chained to his past, which is making it quite difficult for him in the present. When Luke wrote the book of Acts under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we get a greater insight into Moses’ problem.

And Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians and he was a man of power in words and deeds. But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian. And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him; but they did not understand. (Luke 7:22-25) (Emphasis mine)

We have a tendency to think that Moses experienced the call of God to be the deliverer of His people when he was on the backside of the desert. But reality is, Moses knew it before he ever fled Egypt. The problem was that he “was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians.” That was no small accomplishment! Men of his stature would have had to become familiar with more than thirty languages. That’s quite shocking for most Americans who have a hard enough time learning one!!! The pursuit of knowledge and academics was always a chief concern of the Egyptians. Not only was Moses well learned, we are also told that he was powerful in “words and deeds.” You’d sure find that difficult to believe when you listen to him arguing with God. Two times we hear Moses tell God that he is not a good speaker. You may remember when God first appeared to him in the desert, Moses told God, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though You have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” Literally, what he said was, “I have a heavy tongue.” Now God has gotten him as far as Egypt, which was no small feat! God is about to send him on his first face-to-face encounter with Pharaoh, and all Moses can say is, “I can’t do it! I’m such a clumsy speaker!” Oy vey!!! What’s with this guy? Once again, the literal interpretation of what he said is, “I have uncircumcised lips!” In Leviticus, God tells the people to circumcise their hearts. God says through Jeremiah that the people are unable to hear what He has to say because they have uncircumcised ears. (Jeremiah 6:10) This may sound strange to our western ears, but to the oriental way of thinking, it made all kinds of sense.

If something is uncircumcised, it has not had the foreskin removed. In Hebrew, the word for foreskin is “orlah.” It is used for things that stand in the way of a beneficial result. Therefore, for the first three years of a tree, the fruit is called “orlah” because, according to the law, it cannot be eaten. An unrepentant heart is covered with “orlah.” The “orlah” over ones ears causes them to be unable to hear God. In other words, something is standing in the way of the beneficial result God intended.

But what is it that is standing in Moses’ way? Before he ever killed the Egyptian when he was forty, Moses knew he had been rescued from the Nile and raised in Pharaoh’s household so that he could deliver his people. But somehow Moses got it in his mind that his powers would come through what Egypt afforded him. His education in Egypt, his status, his power with words, were attributes he had put his trust in. Little did he know of the God of the Hebrews. Moses had come to rely on all that Egypt had given him, and God had to completely strip him. When God commissioned Moses to go and confront Pharaoh, the most powerful man on the earth, Moses had a difficult time understanding how 40 years of shepherding could have ever prepared him for the courts of the Pharaoh! Moses’ inability to speak came from the foreskin of flesh that clouded his understanding. From the time God met Moses in the desert, until he arrived in Egypt, Moses kept telling God what he was incapable of doing. God’s response was constantly reiterating what He could and would do. What was the “orlah” that stood in Moses’ way? He struggled with “I” trouble!

As we begin our week’s journey, we cover some familiar territory, but how well do we really know this path? Let me ask you a few questions and test your knowledge on this familiar “well-known” story.

Whose rod was cast down before Pharaoh and became a serpent?
Whose rod was used to strike the Nile when God turned it to blood?
Which plagues were ushered in without using the rod at all?
Which plagues affected Goshen and which ones did not?
Which plagues could the magicians duplicate?
What is it that the magicians could never do?
How many times did Pharaoh say he would let them go and then change his mind?
How many times did Aaron speak to Pharaoh and how many times did Moses speak?
Which plagues caused Pharaoh’s knees to buckle?

To help you glean a bit more from this familiar passage, I am sending out a chart to all registered journeyers that will aid you in dissecting this information. It will be in a “Word” document so that you can fill it in on your computer if you’d like. I will also put a copy on this entry for those who are stealthily journeying with us. That way, you can get an idea of how of what I’m suggesting. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to bring it up as a Word document and won’t be able to use it on your computer. I have a feeling that we will all discover we don’t know this story as much as we think we do!

This week is filled with lots of action. So many paths we could take! So much we could see!!! May God light your path as you continue your road of discovery!!!

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QUESTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Monday – The plagues chart (see below)

Tuesday – What crops did the hail ruin?

Wednesday –
1. When was the yearly ritual of Passover to begin?
2. Who took the bones of Joseph when they left Egypt?

Thursday
1. How much many was put in the jar that was eventually placed in the Ark of the Covenant?
2. Why is that amount significant?

Friday
1. Who led the army against the Amalekites?
2. What is extremely interesting about God’s instructions to Moses in Exodus 19:21-22?


Note: You can double click or right click on the chart and save it as an image.