Week 9 Wednesday
Today the final plagues fall on Egypt in devastating fashion, David remembers being lifted from the pit and recommits himself to God's will, and Jesus shares His last Passover with the disciples before His betrayal.
Exodus 10-11
📖 What are we reading?: The final three plagues arrive - locusts strip Egypt's remaining food, three days of darkness fall, and the last and most devastating plague of all is announced.
✞ What does this passage say about God?: He is sovereign even over the sun - the darkness was a direct stand against Ra, Egypt's sun god - and He alone holds the power of life and death, as we see in the coming plague.
🛐 How does this passage teach us to live?: Even after everything Pharaoh has witnessed, his heart still hardens (10:20, 27). Let's ask whether repeated evidence of God's power is softening our own hearts, or hardening them.
Looking for some extra info?
➡️ The bigger picture: Exodus, meaning "departure", was written by Moses around 1400 BC, and tells of Israel's miraculous deliverance from slavery in Egypt - a rescue Israel was called to remember for generations, and a picture of Christ's greater deliverance from sin.
Psalm 40
📖 What are we reading?: After two dark psalms, David remembers a time God lifted him out of the pit and put a new song in his mouth, and recommits himself to doing God's will.
✞ What does this passage say about God?: He hears our cries from the pit and lifts us out (verses 1-3), and delights not in empty sacrifice but in a heart that says, "I desire to do your will" (verses 6-8).
🛐 How does this passage teach us to live?: Even here, in a place of confident worship, David still cries out for help by the psalm's second half. Worship and need aren't opposites - we can bring both to God at once.
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 devotional by Luke on Psalm 40, as part of a year-end examen.
Luke 22:1-38
📖 What are we reading?: Judas agrees to betray Jesus, Jesus shares the Passover meal with His disciples and institutes the Lord's Supper, the disciples squabble over who is greatest, Jesus predicts Peter's denial, and gives a puzzling instruction about purses, bags, and swords.
✞ What does this passage say about God?: Even as betrayal closes in around Him, Jesus remains fully in control – fulfilling the ancient Passover meal as he initiated a new covenant in His own body and blood.
🛐 How does this passage teach us to live?: Don’t be too quick to point fingers at Judas and Peter – we are often like them. Notice how quickly the disciples move from sharing in the Lord's Supper to arguing about greatness (verse 24).
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.
🎤 Luke's 2024 Lent sermon series, looking closely at the events of this chapter.
A Prayer for the Day
🙏 Lord, You alone hold power over life, death, and every stubborn heart. Lift us out of our own pits as You lifted David, and teach us to serve one another as Jesus served, even facing His own betrayal. Amen.
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