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Exodus 15

Jan23

Good morning y’all. Thank God it’s Friday :). It is very cold and frosty here in Portsmouth UK, yet the sun is shinning ever so brightly. I’m in awe of God’s Majesty 🙂

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This is the view from my room this morning while blogging 🙂

Today we are looking at Exodus chapter 15. The chapter is mainly their song of thanks to God for His deliverance.

At this point in the book of Exodus, God had led the children of Isreal out of Egypt via the red sea. They walked through it on dry land! (How awesome 🙂 ). The Egyptians tried to follow but they were drowned in the sea by God. The Isrealites were awed by God’s display of power.

“Moses and the Israelites sang this song in praise of the Lord: I sing praises to the Lord for his great victory! He has thrown the horses and their riders into the sea.    The Lord is my strength, the reason for my song, because he has saved me. I praise and honor the Lord— he is my God and the God of my ancestors.  The Lord is his name, and he is a warrior!  He threw the chariots and army of Egypt’s king into the Red Sea, and he drowned the best of the king’s officers.  They sank to the bottom just like stones.  With the tremendous force of your right arm, our Lord, you crushed your enemies.  What a great victory was yours, when you defeated everyone who opposed you. Your fiery anger wiped them out, as though they were straw.  You were so furious that the sea piled up like a wall, and the ocean depths curdled like cheese.  Your enemies boasted that they would pursue and capture us, divide up our possessions, treat us as they wished, then take out their swords and kill us right there.  But when you got furious, they sank like lead, swallowed by ocean waves.  Our Lord, no other gods compare with you— Majestic and holy! Fearsome and glorious! Miracle worker!  When you signaled with your right hand, your enemies were swallowed deep into the earth.  The people you rescued were led by your powerful love to your holy place.  Nations learned of this and trembled— Philistines shook with horror.  The leaders of Edom and of Moab were terrified. Everyone in Canaan fainted,  struck down by fear. Our Lord, your powerful arm kept them still as a rock until the people you rescued to be your very own had marched by.  You will let your people settle on your own mountain, where you chose to live and to be worshiped.  Our Lord, you will rule forever!” (Exodus 15:1-18 CEVUS06)

We too ought to give thanks to God at all times for the victories He has won for us. No matter how small or big the victories may seem to us, we still need to thank God. King David the psalmist was very good at this and I have a feeling that was the reason God said “He is a man after his own heart”. He knew how to praise God for victories and even for the ones he was still waiting on God to perform for him.

Below are a few of my favourites from King David

Psalms 34:1-3 CEVUS06 : I will always praise the Lord.  With all my heart, I will praise the Lord. Let all who are helpless, listen and be glad.  Honor the Lord with me! Celebrate his great name.

Psalms 69:30 CEVUS06: I will praise the Lord God with a song and a thankful heart.

Psalms 103:1-2 CEVUS06: With all my heart I praise the Lord, and with all that I am I praise his holy name!  With all my heart I praise the Lord! I will never forget how kind he has been.

Psalms 47:1-3 NLT: Come, everyone! Clap your hands! Shout to God with joyful praise! For the lord Most High is awesome. He is the great King of all the earth. He subdues the nations before us, putting our enemies beneath our feet.

Today, let us ponder on all that God has done for us. And with a grateful heart let’s come before his throne and offer him the praise that is due His name.

Also, let the testimony of the Exodus encourage us that God is all powerful, He is majestic and great in power. His right hand is glorious and works so many wonders. Whatever situation we are facing, God is able to deliver us and rescue us from them. Let’s keep on trusting him and thanking him in advance for the victory. For we know how it all ends – We will Win !!!! ( Hallelujah 🙂 )

Prayer:
Dear Lord we thank you for today. You are a great and mighty, All powerful, All knowing God.  We give you all the praise and glory. Thank you for all the victories you have won for us and those you are currently working on now and those you are yet to do. Lord give us the grace to keep trusting you and encourage those of us who are weary. Thank you dear Lord. We love you. In Jesus Name we have prayed. Amen

Thanks for joining today.

Have a blessed day and wonderful Weekend ahead 🙂

***With God all things are possible***

Exodus 14

Jan22

Good morning y’all. Today we are looking at Exodus 14.

Be blessed 🙂

From the 1st four verses of the chapter, we see that for everything God asks us to do, there is always a purpose – For His name to be glorified. God told Moses the purpose why he asked them to turn back. He wants his glory to be displayed and for Pharaoh and the Egyptians to see that He is the Lord (Yahweh): the one who own everything, who rules and reigns over the affairs of men.

In verse10, the people panicked when they saw Pharaoh approaching. To the people, it seemed as though God commanded them to leave and now it seems the enemy is going to succeed and kill them. At that point, it felt like God had deserted them or perhaps they started doubting if God was truly the One who told them to leave Egypt.

This is true for most of us. God asks us to do something, we do it but there are challenges on the way and we start to doubt whether it was God who called us or we just called ourselves.

We need to understand that God doesn’t promise that the road to the promised land will be easy with no pain at all. What He promised was that we will definitely make it to the promised land and that He will be with us. And we know God never lies so if He has said it, then let’s believe that even in the midst of the obstacles He is able to deliver us. (The invitation we are given is found in Matt 11:29-30; the reality we should expect is found in John 15:18; and the confidence we have is found John 16:33.)

The Israelites had seen God take them out of Egypt without them having to fight. He had been with them from the day they left as the cloud and fire. It seems to me that they didn’t recognise His presence with them.  I ask myself, if they did, why then did they start to panic when they saw Pharaoh and his chariots approaching? Was it that they thought God wasn’t able to deliver them from Pharaoh this time around?

I’m reminded of the disciples when they were in the boat with Jesus and the storm came. Jesus was sleeping in the boat during the storm. Notice He was in the boat with them but asleep. The disciples started to panic and went to wake Jesus up saying, ‘Lord, save us!’.

“Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples. Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”.(Matthew 8:23-25 NLT)

These are men that have seen Jesus perform miracles. Yet in the midst of the storm they panicked even with Jesus present in their boat. They didn’t fully understand the power of the One who was asleep in their boat.

Same can be said of some of us. The cares of this world has so distracted us that we do not even see God’s hand or presence in our lives and when the storms start to rage we panic. Jesus responded to their cry for help.

“Jesus responded, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm. The disciples were amazed. “Who is this man?” they asked. “Even the winds and waves obey him!” (Matthew 8:26-27 NLT)

The latter part of verse 10 tells us the Israelites cried out to God.
” …..They cried out to the lord” (Exodus 14:10 NLT)

At least they knew to turn to God for help. Who do we turn to when things get out of hand in our lives? Do we turn to our friends, pastor, bank accounts or parents?.

Verses 11 and 12 suggests the Israelites would have rather remained slaves in Egypt than be free. It’s like they still didn’t know or understand the God they serve. God had worked miracles and yet at the first sign of trouble they are thinking of going back to Egypt and lamenting. It’s like they’ve already forgotten about God and his mighty power.

Let’s see God response through Moses to them.

“But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” (Exodus 14:13-14 NLT)

Stand still and see your God. That is, God is saying to them I don’t need you to do anything. I have all the power in my hands. All you need to do is be still and watch Me fight this one for you. All these enemies you see today, you will see them no more

I believe God is saying those same words to us today. Whatever challenges come our way, we don’t need to panic, we need to hand it over to him in prayer and thanksgiving and watch him come through for us. Philippians 4:6 tells us not to be anxious about anything but to pray about everything.
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done”.(Philippians 4:6 NLT)

I love verse 15. This is my version of it – why are you sitting down feeling dejected and crying all over the place? Come on! Get up! Start moving: start doing what I have asked you to do. Yes there are obstacles on the way, but you keep doing and moving towards what I have told you to do and you will see me clear the obstacles for you.

Notice if the children of Israel didn’t move, they would have been killed by pharaoh and also they would not have seen the Red sea part. All we need to do is take the 1st step and God will sort out the rest for us. I once heard someone say faith is taking the first step even when you cannot see the staircase.

So the Red sea parted and the children of Isreal walked through dry ground. Pharaoh’s army tried to go in with them. God has a great sense of humor: He twisted the chariot wheels 🙂 and set confusion into the enemies camp…lol. At this stage, the Egyptians finally agreed it’s time to turn back because God is fighting for Israel but by then it was too late for them, for the Lord caused the waters to drown them.

Today, our enemies will turn back because they will see that God is fighting for us. Romans 8 says: “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?” (Romans 8:31 NLT)

Prayer:
Dear Lord thank you for today. Thanks for all the wonderful things you have done for us. May we always be in awe of your majesty.  Today, we ask you help us not to be anxious but bring all our problems to you knowing you are able to help us with them and give us grace to step out in faith into all that you have prepared for us. Thank you Lord. In Jesus Name we prayed. Amen.

Thanks for joining. Please feel free to share your thoughts on the chapter 🙂

Have a blessed day 🙂

***With God all things are possible***