Thurs.’s Devo- Testing

Read: Exodus 15:19-17:7; Matthew 22:1-33; Psalm 27:1-6; Proverbs 6:20-26 When the people of Israel witnessed the Lord bring the waters back on the Egyptian chariots and drown them, Miriam picked up her tambourine and led the women into a song and dance of praise to the Lord. Moses led the people three days into the desert where there was no water. When they finally came to water, it was bitter and the people complained to Moses. Moses cried out to the Lord and he showed Moses a log and told him to throw it into the water. The water was made drinkable. God then told the people that he would test their faithfulness to him by their obedience. If they did what he said, they would never experience the diseases they had in Egypt. They traveled another month and ran out of bread so they complained to Moses and accused him of bringing them out there to starve to death. God gave them another test to see if they would obey. He told them he would send bread from heaven in the morning and they were only to gather enough for the day. They were not to keep any of it till the next day. Some obeyed while others didn’t believe God and saved some overnight. In the morning it had worms and stunk. Moses was very upset at them. On the sixth day they were to gather enough for two days. Moses also told them he would give them meat to eat in the evening. That next morning they awoke to flakes of bread on the ground and that evening they witnessed quail that flew in. Some of the people didn’t gather enough manna on the sixth day and were surprised to have no manna on the seventh. The seventh day was to be a Sabbath day and it was to be a gift from God to them. It was a day of rest. God told Moses to gather a day’s worth of manna, two quarts, and put it in a jar to save as a testimony to God’s provision. The people went on to Rephidim where they were tested again as there was no water. Instead of trusting the Lord, they complained to Moses. The Lord was testing their faith while they tested the Lord’s patience and mercy. The Lord told Moses to take his staff and the elders to a rock at Mt. Sinai. He was to strike the rock and water would come gushing out. He obeyed and it happened just as God said it would. He named the place Massah which means “test” because the Lord was testing them, and Mariah which means “arguing” because the people were arguing. In Matthew, Jesus told another parable about the Kingdom of Heaven. A king prepared a great wedding feast for his son and invited all his friends but they refused to come. They all had excuses. The king then sent his servants out to find anyone who would come and invited them until the banquet hall was filled with guests. One of the men wasn’t wearing the proper clothes and had no excuse. He was bound and thrown into the outer darkness. The moral of the parable was that many are invited, but few are elected. This ticked the Pharisees off as they knew he was referring to them as the villain in all of his parables. They met to discuss how they could trap Jesus into saying something they could arrest him on. They came back with a question to test Jesus. They asked him if it was right to pay taxes to Caesar or not. Jesus knew what they were doing and called them hypocrites because they were acting. He told them to give to Caesar’s what was his and to God what was his. They went away amazed at his wisdom. The Sadducees then came with their question to trap Jesus. It had to do with resurrection since they didn’t believe in the resurrection. Jesus saw through their acting also and cut straight to the chase. He reminded them of what God had said about himself in talking about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Long after they had died, God said that he was their God. How could he be the God of the dead? There had to be a resurrection. The crowds were astounded by his teaching because instead of barking out man-made commandments, he was explaining God’s commandments where they could understand them. Lord, help us to have faith to pass the tests of life. May we not test you with our disobedience but learn about you through our obedience. Thank you for your grace to follow you.