Mon.’s Devo - God’s Deliverer!

Read: Genesis 50:1-Exodus 2:10; Matthew 16:13-17:9; Psalm 21:1-13; Proverbs 5:1-6 Jacob died and Joseph mourned greatly. They embalmed his body which took 40 days and the Egyptians mourned an extra 30. Joseph asked the Pharaoh if he might honor his father’s request and take his body to Canaan to bury him in the land of his ancestor’s Abraham, Isaac, Leah and Sarah. Pharaoh allowed him to go. Joseph went with his brothers and many Egyptians. He returned and ruled in Egypt. His brothers were afraid that now that their dad was gone, Joseph would seek retaliation for all they did to him. Joseph assured them that this had been the plan of God the whole time in order to prepare a place for them of safety and life. Joseph later died at the age of 110 completely living out his destiny. Over the years their family of 70 grew into a multitude of prosperous and powerful people. A new king came to power who hadn’t known Joseph and what he had done for his nation. All he could see is that the number of Hebrews was quickly overpopulating his world and he was intimidated and scared they might usurp his kingdom. So, he set out too depopulated them. He told the midwives to kill all the boy babies. The midwives could not do it and lied to the king saying the Hebrew women were so healthy they had their babies before they could get to them. Next, the Pharaoh told his soldiers to go to every Hebrew house and take all the baby boys under the age of 2 and throw them into the Nile River. So sad! Around this time, a husband and wife from the tribe of Levi had a son. The mother knew there was something very special about this son and tried to hide the baby from the Egyptian gestapo. When it became too dangerous, she took a basket and filled the holes with pitch making a waterproof boat and put the baby in it. His sister watched from the reeds to see what would happen to him. The Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe that day and saw the basket. She had her maid fetch it for her and when she saw the baby and he cried, she fell in love with him and wanted to keep him. She told her maids to go find a Hebrew mother to nurse it for her and Miriam popped out of the reeds and offered her mother. The princess was delighted and told her she would pay her to nurse him. She named him Moses because she drew him out of the water. So, the faith of Moses’ mother was honored and she was allowed to nurse and raise her own son until he was weaned. He would one day return to save the life of her posterity. In Matthew, Jesus asked his disciples who everyone was saying that he was. The reply was that some of them thought he was either John the Baptist, Elijah or Jeremiah resurrected. Then he asked them who they thought he was. Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus commended him and told him that his truth came from God’s spirit. He reminded him that his name meant “Rock” because what he said was truth. Upon the truth that he just said, Jesus would build his kingdom and what the people of his kingdom allow on earth would be allowed in heaven and what they forbade on earth would be forbidden in heaven. We forbid lies, corruption, murder, abuse, and treason on this earth! Jesus then warned them not to tell people that he was the Messiah. From that moment, Jesus was able to teach them plainly the plan of what was about to happen because their eyes had been opened to who he was. Peter took him aside and wanted him to retract his statements but Jesus rebuked him and told Satan to get away from him. He recognized the trap Satan was trying to set through Peter’s words even though Peter had no idea what was going on. Jesus told them that the way to life was through death. Six days later, Jesus took them up on the mountain and showed them his glory as he spoke to Moses and Elijah about what was soon to take place. Peter, wanted to make a tabernacle to honor each of them. God spoke from heaven and said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” How human it is to honor men and want to build statutes to men. I pray that we not rebuild our statutes in America that have been torn down and burned. Maybe the enemy was doing us a favor. All God wants is for us to honor Him. Lord, may we learn from our mistakes and not repeat them. You are the one who is going to save our nation and the nations of the world, not any man. Thank you that you use your people to do your purposes and we pray your anointing upon all of our leaders, but may we never forget the God behind them and your power to save!