Week 8 Friday
Today the plagues begin as God sets out to prove Himself the one true God, David closes his psalm with a call to blameless living, and Jesus outwits the religious leaders before exposing their hearts in a piercing parable.
Exodus 7
📖 What are we reading?: Moses and Aaron, now aged eighty and eighty-three, obey God and confront Pharaoh again. The first plague strikes - the Nile is turned to blood.
✞ What does this passage say about God? His great motive for all He does is seen in verse 5 - that Egypt would know He is the Lord. Several Egyptian gods were associated with the Nile, so God polluted it to prove Himself the One True God above them all.
🛐 How does this passage teach us to live? Notice the obedience of Moses and Aaron in verse 6 - may the same be said of us today, whatever God calls us to do.
Looking for some extra info?
➡️ The bigger picture: Exodus, meaning "departure", was written by Moses around 1400 BC. It tells the thrilling story of Israel's miraculous deliverance from slavery in Egypt - the great rescue that Israel would look back on again and again as proof of God's love, and a picture of Christ setting us free from the prison of sin.
Psalm 37:23-40
📖 What are we reading?: David continues his counsel on trusting God rather than envying the wicked, closing with a call to blameless, upright living.
✞ What does this passage say about God? He upholds those whose steps He directs, and He never forsakes the righteous, even when they stumble.
🛐 How does this passage teach us to live? We are called to delight in God (verse 23), to turn from evil and do good (verse 27), to hope in Him (verse 34), and to be blameless and upright (verse 37). Let's live this way today through the Spirit's empowering!
Looking for some extra info?
➡️ The bigger picture: The Psalms is a collection of 150 poems and songs, written by David and others, expressing the full range of human emotion in response to God and to life.
📝 A week of devotions on Psalm 37.
Luke 20:1-18
📖 What are we reading?: The religious leaders question Jesus' authority, but He stumps them with a question of His own. He then tells the parable of the tenants - a story clearly meant to condemn them.
✞ What does this passage say about God? He is wiser than His most cunning critics, and He sees straight through hostile questions to the hearts behind them. Yet even in judgement, He is patient - sending servant after servant before His own Son.
🛐 How does this passage teach us to live? The parable of the tenants shows that Jesus knew exactly who He was and what He was about to go through. Let's take this as a sobering reminder not to reject the One God has sent to us.
Looking for some extra info?
➡️ The bigger picture: Luke's Gospel was written by Luke, a Greek physician and companion of Paul, around AD 60-62. It is the most detailed account of Jesus' life, and is especially attentive to the poor, to women, and to outcasts.
A Prayer for the Day
🙏 Lord, thank You that You act so that we would know You are the one true God. Help us to obey You as Moses and Aaron did, to trust rather than envy, to live blamelessly by Your Spirit's power, and never to reject the Son You have sent to us. Amen.
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