Mon.’s Devo - Moses’ Calling

Read: Exodus 2:11-3:22; Matthew 17:10-27; Psalm 22:1-18; Proverbs 5:7-14 Moses never forgot he was a Hebrew growing up in an Egyptian palace. He went out one day to see how his own people were doing. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and looked to see if anyone was looking and killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. The Hebrew who he rescued must have told everyone because the next day when he was back he ran into two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one who started it why had had struck his companion. The Hebrew asked him who made him prince and judge over them and then asked him if he was going to kill him like he did the Egyptian. Moses knew immediately that if the word was out on the street what he had done, it would surely reach the ears of the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh did hear and Moses fled for his life. *** Moses came to the land of Midian. Midian was the area around the Sinai mountain and was ruled by a nomadic Arabic tribe. Moses stopped at a well and the seven daughters of the priest of Midian came to the well to water their father’s flocks. When other shepherds came and tried to drive them away, Moses stood up for them and watered their sheep. When the woman got home their father questioned why they came so soon and they told him about what Moses did for them. He told them to go and invite him to stay with them. *** Moses ended up living with them and marrying his daughter Zipporah. She had a son named Gershom which means “a stranger in a foreign land.” That was how Moses felt. *** Meanwhile, back in Egypt, the Pharaoh died and the people of Israel cried out to the Lord because their slavery was so brutal. *** God called Moses as he was watching a bush that burned but was not consumed. He told him to take off his sandals because the land he was standing on was holy. He was standing on Mt. Sinai. He told him who he was - the father and God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God had seen the affliction of his people in Egypt and was had come to deliver them out of Egypt and bring them to a land that was good, wide and flowing with milk and honor. It was now owned by the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hives, and the Jebusite. He was sending Moses to the Pharaoh to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. God promised to be with Moses and help him. He would come back and worship him on this mountain. *** Mose told the Lord that the Pharaoh would want to know which god had called him so God told him to say that I Am had sent him.He was to tell the children of Israel that he was the God of their ancestors. Moses was to meet with the elders of Israel and tell them that the God their fathers had appeared to him and he was ready to deliver them from their suffering and bring them out of Egypt and give them the good land now inhabited by all the “ites”. *** The elders would listen to him and go with him to ask the Pharaoh to let them go three day’s journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord, their God. The Pharaoh will not let you go unless he is made to so God will strike Egypt with many wonders, then he will let them go. When they leave, they will leave with the wealth of Egypt. *** In Matthew, the disciples asked him why the scribes said that Elijah must come first. Jesus explained that Elijah will restore things first, but he had already come and they didn’t recognize him. They will also not recognize the Messiah and he will suffer in their hands, also. The disciples understood he was speaking of John the Baptist. *** A crowd appeared and a man came up to Jesus praying that Jesus would have mercy on his epileptic son who falls often and harms himself. He had brought him to Jesus’ disciples but they couldn’t help. Jesus called them a faithless and twisted generation and told the man to bring the boy to him. Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out and the boy was healed. When the disciples asked why they couldn’t cast it out he answered because of their faith. All they needed was a little faith to do great things. *** Why did Jesus call the generation faithless and twisted. They had allowed the devil to rule them, afflict their children and possess them. They had forgot who their God was and who they were called to be as his children. *** At a meeting in Galilee, Jesus told them that he was going to suffer the hands of men who would kill him but he would rise from the dead on the third day. This distressed the people. *** Peter was met by the tax-collectors in Capernaum. They wanted to know if Jesus paid his taxes. They answered “Yes”. When Peter met Jesus, he asked Peter who kings collect taxes from? From their sons or from others? He said “From others” and Jesus told him that the sons were free, but not to offend the tax collectors, he told Peter to go to the sea and cast out a hook and take the first fish that comes up and open his mouth. The shekel needed to pay the tax will be there. He was to take that and pay their tax. *** What can we gain from that? We are being taxed on everything over and over, so we are definitely not a son of the world. But, being sons of God, we can pray that God will supernaturally help us to pay our taxes to where it won’t hurt us and that soon justice will come and we won’t be taxed. *** Lord, may we not be a faithless and twisted generation, but may we take authority over this world and take back what has been stolen from us.