Sat.’s Devo - The Trials of Leadership

Read: Exodus 4:1-5:21; Matthew 18:1-22; Psalm 22:19-31; Proverbs 5:15-21
God gave Moses three signs so that the Egyptians would believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers - the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and had appeared to Moses. All three signs pointed to salvation. The rod, the hand, the water are all pictures of what happens when the blood of Jesus is applied and salvation has come. The rod becomes what it is suppose to be - man’s authority in Christ, the hand is cleansed of a disease of the flesh - sin, and the water becomes the source of life instead of death.
Moses argued with God about his choice of leadership so God told Moses he could bring Aaron, his brother who was younger than him. Moses finally agreed to go and ended up doing the speaking too.
On the way, we have this crazy encounter between Moses and his wife, Zipporah. Apparently there had been a disagreement about circumcision. Maybe Zipporah was having a hard time with it and couldn’t do it, but when she saw it was literally making Moses sick to death, she submitted.
It would not just be the Pharaoh that Moses would have to convince that God had sent him but his own people also. They were behind him when they saw his miracles but when it started costing them, they were ready to send Moses back to where he had come from. They continued to be fickle the whole wilderness journey.
In Matthew, Jesus answered the question about who is greatest in the kingdom by brining a child up and explaining that the greatest is the humblest. He also dealt with the punishment of those who would try to harm a person who was innocent and childlike.
Jesus is the Great Shepherd who would leave his ninety-nine just to go a rescue a child.
For the second time, Jesus tells us that whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven and what ever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Today, Jesus says it right after he talked about restoration and discipline. When someone refuses to repent and seek forgiveness then he is bound up in their soul and their spirit but when someone repents and forgiveness is given then they are loosed on earth and in heaven.
Lord, help us to loose anyone or thing that we have held in bondage or judgment. Help us to forgive and have mercy.