First Baptist Church, Mount Pleasant, Michigan

Devotional: Exodus 4:18-31

Today’s passage: Exodus 4:18-31

Helpful thoughts:

  • The firstborn son (Verse 22) is a title for the one who is preeminent and will be the heir.  Israel was to be the inheritor of God’s promises.  The Pharaoh (Being royalty) would have understood this statement very clearly (Probably better than we do).  This designation also makes the final plague Egypt would endure all the more poignant (The death of the firstborn).
    • God told Moses ahead of time that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart.  He told Pharaoh from the very beginning, if Pharaoh didn’t let God’s “firstborn” go, He would take Pharaoh’s firstborn.  God knew from the beginning exactly what was going to happen and what He was going to do.  God is eternally omniscient, sovereign, providential.
  • God is also holy and just.  Part of the covenant Moses was part of required circumcision.  The leader of Israel would be held accountable.  Through the quick intervention of his wife, Moses’ life is once again preserved by the actions of another.
  • The mission got off to a great start!  Moses and Aaron were reunited.  The people heard the plan of God, saw the signs, believed and worshiped God for having heard their cries.  It wouldn’t be this easy from here on out.

Questions to consider:

  1. Why might we think God’s actions toward Moses in judgment would have appeared unjust?  How does Zipporah’s quick action tell us that she and Moses both know what they were supposed to have done?
  2. Why would God have hardened Pharaoh’s heart?  What purpose was it going to serve?  Was Pharaoh particularly interested in following God before this series of events?  What particularly was God going to harden Pharoah’s heart to do?
  3. How can the knowledge of God, along with his righteousness and justice, compel us to live in a healthy fear, reverence and obedience to Him?  How does this give us a greater understanding of all that Christ endured on the cross as He paid the penalty for all our sin?

Devotional: Exodus 4:1-17

Today’s passage: Exodus 4:1-17

Helpful thoughts:

  • Moses has just been commissioned by God to go lead Israel out of Egypt.  In today’s passage, Moses tries to get himself out of the job.
  • Moses shared two main concerns:
    • The people wouldn’t believe Moses had been sent by God.
    • He wouldn’t be able to properly articulate or verbalize all that needed to be said.
  • God shared two answers:
    • God gave Moses three signs to show his authenticity.
    • “Who made your mouth?”  God could use a donkey to speak to Israel if He wanted (Numbers 22:28).  He certainly had the ability to use Moses.
      • God mercifully also gave Moses his brother, Aaron.  To be a support and an additional speaker in the cause.

Questions to consider:

  1. In what way does verse 13 show the desire of Moses’ heart in this moment?  What did he want?  What didn’t he want?  Why did he voice the concerns that he did before God?
  2. What can we learn about God in verse 14?  Why was His anger kindled?  What should Moses have been able to believe without self-preservation blinding him?  What did God provide to Moses in his weakness?  How does this show God’s long-suffering, patience, mercy, etc.?
  3. What has God given us to do?  If we are ever blinded by a desire for self-preservation, what questions do we bring up?  What is the irony of self-preservation causing us to disobey the God of the universe?

Devotional: Exodus 3

Today’s passage: Exodus 3

Helpful thoughts:

  • Some different names for the same people or places:
    • Reuel of Exodus 2:18 and Jethro of Exodus 3:1 are the same person, Moses’ father-in-law and the “priest of Midian.”
    • Mount Horeb, the “mountain of God” and Mount Sinai are the same mountain.
    • The Angel of the Lord is clearly understood in this passage to be God Himself.  He also reveals Himself in this passage as “I AM WHO I AM,” “I AM,” and “The LORD” or “Yahweh.”
  • When Moses sees the bush burning yet not being burned up, he looks closer.  This is how the Lord manifests his presence in this instance.
    • When the Lord addresses Moses, he is instructed to take off his sandals, because the Lord’s presence made that ground holy.
    • When Moses realizes who it is he’s speaking with, he covers his eyes for fear of his life.
  • God tells Moses exactly what’s going to happen.
    • Moses will talk to Pharaoh and make the request, and Pharaoh won’t listen until a number of wonders are wrought by God’s mighty hand.
    • The people will follow Moses out of Egypt.
    • When Israel leaves Egypt, they will not leave empty-handed.  They will plunder the Egyptians.

Questions to consider:

  1. How do you envision the burning bush?  What do you think it looked like?  How do you think the voice of God sounded?  What would have compelled Moses to be obedient to take off his sandals and cover his face?
  2. What do the names of God, or these phrases referring to Him, reveal about Him?  What would the children of Israel have learned about God through these names/descriptions?
  3. With what God told Moses was going to happen, should Moses have expected smooth sailing in the task ahead?  How might this have caused Moses to think twice about what God was asking him to do?  How could God’s detailed instructions and promises have calmed Moses and given him confidence even when things looked bad in the days ahead?  How can the promises of God give you confidence in your life?

Devotional: Exodus 2

Today’s passage: Exodus 2

Helpful thoughts:

  • There are three major events covered in this chapter:
    • The adoption of Moses by Pharaoh’s daughter (or the story of his survival).
      • Moses’ sister was the one who asked the Egyptian princess if she wanted to find a Hebrew nurse.
      • Moses’ true mother got to nurse her child!
    • Moses’ crisis of identity at the age of 40.
      • After living as Egyptian royalty for forty years, Moses came to understand who his people really were.
      • For a second time in his life, Moses narrowly escaped the Pharaoh’s desire to have him killed.
      • After fleeing, Moses became a shepherd and lived among the Midianites.
    • God hearing, seeing, knowing the cry of His people, and remembering His covenant.
  • In all of this, we see the providence of God at work.  The pieces of the narrative which God has orchestrated are being constructed before the reader’s eyes.
  • This chapter could account for as many as 80 years (Acts 7:23, 30, 36).

Questions to consider:

  1. Moses lived forty years like an Egyptian and forty years like a Midianite, yet what was his true identity?  What must Moses have known and continued to consider to not lose sight of who he was?  How can we keep our identity in Christ fixed in our minds as we journey through this life?
  2. What was the meaning of Gershom’s name (Verse 22)?  What is ironic about this meaning?  When had this not been true of Moses and all of the children of Israel?
  3. What do we learn about God in verses 23-24?  Why can we trust in Him?  Why should we turn to Him?  How comforting is it to know that God hears, sees, knows and remembers?

Devotional: Exodus 1

Today’s passage: Exodus 1

Helpful thoughts:

  • The beginnings of a nation (70) came to Egypt and there they flourished.  Our knowledge of the growth of the people and the land of Egypt being “filled with them” sets up the reader to understand what comes next.
    • Egypt’s response to Israel’s flourishing fulfilled God’s word to Abraham in Genesis 15:13.
  • No matter what the Egyptians did to stifle the Israelites, they only grew.  Fear was the motivator to enslave the Israelites.
  • The efforts of the Pharaoh to have the males killed and the midwives fear of the Lord over their earthly king provides our understanding of the environment within which Moses was born.

Questions to consider:

  1. In what way does the theme of fear run through this chapter?  Who was feared?  For what reasons?  What did these different kinds of fear produce in people’s actions?
  2. How does the honest report of the midwives potential dishonesty show the historical authenticity of this narrative?  What did the midwives potentially do that could have been wrong?  What did they do that was right?  For what were they rewarded?
  3. How does the fear of God affect how you see your relationships, your work, your time, etc.?

Devotional: 2 Corinthians 13:11-14

Today’s passage: 2 Corinthians 13:11-14

Helpful thoughts:

  • After much instruction concerning things that were dividing people in the church, Paul concludes his letter with a recap of the highlights:
    • Rejoice.
    • Aim for restoration.
    • Comfort one another.
    • Agree with one another.
    • Live in peace.
      • All of these things can only truly be accomplished when we pursue them in truth.
  • In clearly stating the triune Godhead, Paul also emphasizes three more characteristics God possesses the church should strive for:
    • Grace
    • Love
    • Fellowship

Questions to consider:

  1. Do you think there is any overlap in these lists Paul brought before the church at the end of this letter?  In what way would pursuing one of these goals result in progress in the others?
  2. Why must these things be pursued in truth, in sincerity, and in humility?  Why wouldn’t choosing to be silent and becoming bitter or estranged from someone in the church be an acceptable substitute for living in peace and agreeing with one another?
  3. How does the grace, love and fellowship of the Godhead serve as a model for us to pursue joy and unity as a body of believers?

Devotional: 2 Corinthians 13:1-10

Today’s passage: 2 Corinthians 13:1-10

Helpful thoughts:

  • After Paul’s lengthy rebuke, he prepares the church for proper church discipline upon his next arrival if those in sin do not repent.  One purpose of discipline is to pursue repentance and reconciliation.  The other purpose is to keep the church pure.
    • If there were people in the church at Corinth who were not believers, they should not have been in the church.
  • If Christ is in a person, they will change and grow.  They will persevere in the faith.  Those who have Christ in them have no need to live in fear of falling short.  Those who are living in sin are right to inspect their hearts.
  • Things that God uses in great strength can appear weak in the eyes of the world.  What is truly strong and truly of the Lord will prove true in time.

Questions to consider:

  1. Why did Paul write these challenging words ahead of his arrival in Corinth?  What did he want the church to begin doing before he got there?  What should they have been able to do whether or not he was there?  How might he have helped them if they struggled to obey?
  2. Before whose eyes and for whose approval was Paul living?  What characterizes a strong church in the Lord’s eyes?
  3. What are some ways you have seen the power of God working in you?  How have you been growing?  How have you seen it in others in and how you could encourage them today?

Devotional: 2 Corinthians 12:11-21

Today’s passage: 2 Corinthians 12:11-21

Helpful thoughts:

  • Paul concludes this difficult section of 2 Corinthians with a clear warning.  The way some in the Corinthian church are acting is the way of the world.  The way they are speaking to one another and about one another looks like a list of actions associated with the lost.
  • Paul’s sadness if he should find the church to be living this way would not be for his own rejection, but because it would mean they were still lost and dead in their sins.
  • If the last several paragraphs of scripture have made you feel a little gross, like Paul was acting inappropriately, that’s a good thing!  That’s his point.  It appears he has been imitating the methods of those arguing in the church, holding up a mirror so they could see themselves.

Questions to consider:

  1. How should we speak to each other in the church?  How should we approach each other to resolve conflicts?  What does it look like to speak the truth in love, not be so easily offended or fearful, etc.?
  2. When a church gets busy speaking selfishly and treating one another poorly, what aren’t they doing?  How long will a church remain alive if it only looks inward and quarrels?
  3. What would have been the right response of those in the church Paul was addressing after hearing this letter being read?  What would be their temptation?  When we refuse to repent after honest rebuke, what is it we want more in those moments than to please the Lord, to pursue righteousness, and the health of the church?

Devotional: 2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Today’s passage: 2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Helpful thoughts:

  • Paul’s continued “boasting” in order to “earn the respect” of his doubters in Corinth results in his being content with “weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.”
    • The kinds of things others boasted about to get attention, Paul had actually experienced.
    • Paul’s experiences had led back to weakness.  And in his weakness, he rejoiced.
  • The man Paul refers to in this passage is himself, which is made clear in the context.  His hesitancy to speak of this experience compelled him to try to distance himself from this “man.”
  • We don’t know what this “thorn in the flesh” was which Paul experienced.  All of the hardships we know Paul endured in his lifetime would fit the criteria.
    • The important thing is not to decipher exactly what the “thorn” was, but to know that in our weakness, God can use us in strength. (“When I am weak, then I am strong.”)

Questions to consider:

  1. What does it appear Paul saw in his vision?  Since we have no other record of his experience, what was it’s purpose?  What didn’t Paul do with it that would have been encouraged by many today (and back then)?
  2. What are we being instructed to value more than “amazing experiences” we can tell everyone else about?  What is the truly amazing experience of living the Christian life?
  3. Why and how was Paul made strong?  Was it in Paul?  Did he find it deep down inside himself?  Who gave him this strength?  Who will therefore also give it to you?  Where does the strength to serve the Lord effectively come from?