SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/17/2017
9:29 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Moses”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 7:17-37
Message of the
verses: We begin to look at the
second 40 year period in the life of Moses in our SD for today as God’s call
came “23 "But when he was
approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his brethren, the
sons of Israel.” I have to say that when
I was much younger that I watched “The Ten Commandments” many times, but after
I became a believer I learned that Moses actually knew that he was from the
people of Israel. I guess that in the
movie this made for some drama, but it was not filmed accurately. Moses decided to go and to visit his family
when he became forty years old. Moses
was actually nursed by his mother as seen in Exodus 2:7-9, and in those days I
have learned that the nursing of a child went a lot longer than it does today
and so Moses’ mother would have had time to talk to him about what it meant to
be from Israel, from the tribe of Levi, and may have even talked to him about
the coming redeemer. We move on in
Stephen’s story: “24 “And when he saw
one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance for the
oppressed by striking down the Egyptian. 25 “And he supposed that his brethren
understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not
understand.” It seems that Moses knew
that he was God’s chosen deliver and so he took matters into his own hands and
struck down an Egyptian, and in the OT account we read in Exodus 2:12 “12 So he
looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no one around, he struck
down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.”
The word “hid” in the Hebrew can mean bury and I remember hearing a
sermon many years ago about this portion of Scripture. The pastor giving the sermon said that
burying an Egyptian in the sand was what really got Moses into trouble and this
should never have happened to an Egyptian.
What they did with dead bodies in Egypt is rather famous, but it did not
include burying them in the sand and so Moses had to leave after learning that
two Israelites saw what he did and so he left Egypt in fear of his life. Now as we mentioned his goal of visiting his
brothers was not really a social call, but to let them know that he was their
deliverer, but they did not understand. “26
“On the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting together, and
he tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, ’Men, you are brethren, why do you
injure one another?’ 27 “But the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him
away, saying, ’WHO MADE YOU A RULER AND JUDGE OVER US? 28 ’YOU DO NOT MEAN TO
KILL ME AS YOU KILLED THE EGYPTIAN YESTERDAY, DO YOU?’” 29 “At this remark, MOSES FLED AND BECAME AN
ALIEN IN THE LAND OF MIDIAN, where he became the father of two sons.”
Moses probably knew that he was the deliverer and perhaps
as mentioned earlier this could have come from his mother as she certainly knew
that God was going to send a deliverer to take Israel out of Egypt as He had
promised Abraham in Genesis chapter 15.
Moses was not ready to led the people of Israel out of Egypt at this
time but after tending sheep for forty years he would have the experience that
he needed as we will see as we move into the next 40 years of Moses’ life.
30 "After forty years had passed, AN ANGEL APPEARED
TO HIM IN THE WILDERNESS OF MOUNT Sinai, IN THE FLAME OF A BURNING THORN BUSH. 31
“When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he approached to look more
closely, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 ’I AM THE GOD OF YOUR FATHERS,
THE GOD OF ABRAHAM AND ISAAC AND JACOB.’ Moses shook with fear and would not
venture to look. 33 “BUT THE LORD SAID TO HIM, ’TAKE OFF THE SANDALS FROM YOUR
FEET, FOR THE PLACE ON WHICH YOU ARE STANDING IS HOLY GROUND. 34 ’I HAVE
CERTAINLY SEEN THE OPPRESSION OF MY PEOPLE IN EGYPT AND HAVE HEARD THEIR
GROANS, AND I HAVE COME DOWN TO RESCUE THEM; COME NOW, AND I WILL SEND YOU TO
EGYPT.’” As we look at these verses we
see that Stephen left out some things from the OT story, but as mentioned
earlier it was not his goal to teach them about OT history for they knew it
well themselves, but he was defending himself against the charges that they
were accusing him of.
We will conclude this SD with a comment from John
MacArthur’s commentary on these verses:
“This is a constant pattern
in Israel’s history—spiritual pride coupled with spiritual ignorance that causes
them to reject the deliverers God sends them.
It is sometimes argued that Jesus could have not been the Messiah, or
else Israel would have recognized Him.
As Stephen points out, however, they rejected both Joseph and
Moses. This was their typical response
to those God sent to deliver them. Jesus
spoke of this attitude in Matthew 21:33-46.”
“33 "Listen to another
parable. There was a landowner who PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT
AND DUG A WINE PRESS IN IT, AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to
vine-growers and went on a journey. 34 “When the harvest time approached, he
sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. 35 “The
vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a
third. 36 “Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and
they did the same thing to them. 37 “But afterward he sent his son to them,
saying, ’They will respect my son.’ 38 “But when the vine-growers saw the son,
they said among themselves, ’This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize
his inheritance.’ 39 “They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and
killed him. 40 “Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do
to those vine-growers?" 41 They said to Him, "He will bring those
wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other
vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons." 42 Jesus said to them, "Did you never read
in the Scriptures, ’THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE
CHIEF CORNER stone; THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR
EYES’? 43 "Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away
from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. 44 “And he who falls
on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will
scatter him like dust." 45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they
understood that He was speaking about them. 46 When they sought to seize
Him, they feared the people, because they considered Him to be a prophet.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Patience is seen in this story of Moses as he
waited on the Lord to bring about the plans that he had for him to accomplish
through the power of His Spirit. I can
learn from the lives of Moses and from Stephen as Moses teaches me patience and
Stephen teaches me to stand for the truth no matter how it will effect me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord for all the preparations for
Sandy’s father’s 100th birthday party tomorrow, that it will all
bring glory to the Lord.
Memory verse: Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever
is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever
is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if
anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Upon the forehead of the
woman” (Rev. 17:5).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who helped Ahab get Naboth’s
vineyard?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/17/2017 10:16 AM
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