Exodus Ch.17

Abba Father, we thank you for this day, for this month and for the gift of Your presence in our lives. This is the day You have made and we shall be glad and rejoice in it. We invite You Holy Spirit as we read and share the Word today, may You increase in our minds and understanding as we decrease In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Chapter 17 starts off with an urgent need. That is the children of Israel lacked water to drink in the wilderness. So the people complained against Moses and they asked him, "Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?" (Exodus 17:3).

You would think the blessing and miracle of walking on dry land in the middle of the Red Sea would not be a distant memory to their minds but no. There was another immediate need that required God's attention and in that moment, it did not matter that God drowned and defeated their enemies before their eyes. Thankfully, God still provided water for them to drink by instructing Moses to strike a rock with his rod which produced water (Exodus 17:6).

We can certainly see that one of God's character traits is not petty. He could have decided to withhold water supply from them because all of their complaints but He did not. Isaiah 55: 8-9 tells us that God's ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. As much as God's love for us is not based on our actions or on what we do for Him, it is also always important to have a heart of thanksgiving towards the different ways that God has shown you mercy or showered You with His everlasting blessings over the years.

Often times, after a prayer request is answered, we tend to move on all to quickly onto the next thing as opposed to sitting and meditating in that thanksgiving and the goodness of the LORD expressed in your life.

Friends, the world that we live in will always be unstable in nature because it is not our home and before Jesus departed from the world, He told us in John 14:27; "I am leaving you with a gift - peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be troubled or afraid." Jesus was reminding us that peace is only found in Him and not the things of the world or even the gifts and answered prayers that He intercedes on our behalf. The children of Israel may not have known better than complaining because of the generational captivity they had endured for hundreds of years but you and I who are under a better covenant should always remember to adopt a heart filled with thanksgiving for all of God's goodness and faithfulness especially having sent His Son Christ to die and resurrect from the dead so we can have a new a life. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8), if He has been faithful before, He will be faithful again.

As this chapter wraps up, we see Joshua defeating the Amalekites who had come against the children of Israel (Exodus 17:13). It is important to note that Moses did not physically participate in this battle but rather his participation was spiritual in nature. Exodus 17:11-12 says, "And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun." This text shows us the blessing that is as a result of a supportive family of brothers and sisters in the faith who are able to stand in the gap for you through prayer and supplications especially during diffcult times. In this case, Moses was not only spiritually supportive but God had assigned him the responsibility to lead and ensure that the children of Israel arrived to the promised land.

Praise be to God that now we have Jesus Christ who is risen and alive; whose arms will never tire interceding and fighting on our behalf. 1 John 4:4 says to us, "But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world."

AMEN.

I would like for you to ponder on this question, "who is your Moses?"

TO BE CONTINUED...