COME AS A CHILD LESSON 135 HOW TO DEFEAT THOSE UNWELCOMING AMALEKITES

HOW TO DEFEAT THOSE UNWELCOMING AMALEKITES 

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

We left the Israelites at Rephidim  living with the miracles of the water from The Rock to satisfy their thirst, and The Manna from Heaven to fill their bellies.  What more could they want?  

I guess the answer to that question would be: protection.

The Amalekites were active in the area where the Israelites had camped.  These descendants of Esau were nomadic wanders in the land.  They would attack and maraud innocent people passing through, robbing them and raping and killing their women and children.  They would take all of their possessions to add to their treasures and consume their livestock for their own use.  The Egyptians had given their gold and silver to the Israelites to bribe them to leave quickly and end the plagues.  They were traveling with much wealth and livestock.  The Amalekites were sure to have noticed this as they watched them pass by from their hidden mountain passes.  

When Moses spotted the Amalekite spies he knew they were planning to attack.  He told Joshua to choose some of the Israelite men and go out to fight the Amalekites.   As they were preparing for battle Moses, Aaron and Hur climbed up onto the top a large mountainous hill and Moses held up the Staff of God.

Joshua and his men bravely took on the Amalekites.  As long as Moses held up his hand that contained the staff of God, the Israelites were winning; but if Moses lowered his hand the Amalekites were winning.  Moses’ hands grew tired so Aaron and Hur took a stone and put underneath Moses for support.  Then Aaron and Hur, one on each side held up the arms of Moses.  This way Moses’ hands became steady and Joshua won the battle with the Amalekites.

My first thought upon reading the above information was that the stone used to prop up Moses must have been The Rock that had provided the water for them.  This was a very powerful Rock!  Could it have been the one they used? If so it would symbolize the power of Christ working through Moses.

My next thought was that they won the battle because a team of three were overlooking Joshua and his men from a higher distance.  It was a symbolic picture of The Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit doing a work in the people of God.  As long as the power of God is induced into the situation, there is victory.  If the power of God is neglected, and the people get too tired and weary to care, and the battles are lost. 

After the remarkable victory of this battle, God says a rather odd thing to Moses: “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.”

Why would God say such a thing?  Even though the Amalekites were known to be greedy, unfair and destructive, often taking innocent lives and consistently robbing and plundering those who traveled through the land; why would God proclaim such a harsh and severe judgment against them, showing absolutely no mercy; even thinking the women and children from these people should be destroyed, as if they were hopeless of ever changing?  That doesn’t sound like our gracious and merciful, loving and kind God, does it?

 There appears to be many reasons for this decision, although we may only know half of the reasons, since God can see into the future and we cannot.  God’s ways are so much higher and wiser than ours could ever be.  Part of the weight of this decision handed down from heaven is just the fact that we must blindly trust that God knows what is best for us.  He doesn’t have to explain anything – after all; He is God! 

I’ll ask you to remember my remark at the beginning of this lesson too.  It may be part of the reason.  God had provided almost everything that the people needed to survive; they had water and they had food.  It was miraculous out in the desert land where they were dwelling for this provision to be given.  The one thing that they were lacking was protection.  Now; because of this battle; God had also publicly put his hand of protection on them.  

The Amalekites were well trained in their low-down way of making a living.  They had a reputation for being ruthless, heartless and mean.  They took pride in their murderous ways.  The Israelites were really no match for them in battle.  They were not equipped for war.  Before this battle they had been slaves, unable and forbidden to handle weapons.  They had no plans for attack; yet, God had given them a battle plan through their leaders, and God had protected them and given them another miracle in the victory of this battle. 

We must notice that the name “Amelek” was the name of the fierce leader that the Amalekites took their nation’s name from.  Amelek was a descendant of Esau who had inherited that wandering, nomadic spirit of rebellion that started with Cain in the Garden of Eden.  In order to protect the innocent and clean the evil from the world God had once sent a flood to destroy all men with such a spirit.  Now, for some reason, that same such spirit was back on the earth; and it came through Amelek.  Through Amelek and his descendants, evil was once again growing and populating the earth.  These were the very first enemies that the People of God had to face in the wilderness.  The ancient plot of good versus evil took shape at the very beginning of the journey of the people of  Israel on their way to the Promise Land.  

  If Israel did not carry out God’s battle plans, the Amalekites would keep coming back again and again in order to plunder and destroy them.  They did not realize it at the time; but carried within the capacity of the nation of Israel was the salvation of all the people of the earth.  Could such a treasure be destroyed before it even had time to flourish and grow into a mighty nation?  Could God let our salvation be quickly defeated by an evil greedy nation of rebellious people who did not care one thing about God and His plan of salvation?  Surely not!  God, standing outside of time, could see what mere men could not see.  He knew this was the only answer for the survival of His people. 

The Amalekites, similar in many ways to the people the Israelites had escaped in Egypt, worshiped pagan gods and filled their days with pagan practices.  They did not care for the ways of the God of Israel.  If allowed to thrive without supernatural intervention, they had the power to destroy all the things God had been teaching the people, just as had happened to them in Egypt, should the people be taken captive by them.  God did not allow this, and He warned His people against such a thing.  

God did not order the extermination in the battle against the Amalekites in order to be cruel, but simply to prevent a greater evil from occurring in the future.  Any time that you hear the name Amelek and face anyone associated with that name, you are really encountering God's greatest enemy that backs up the power of Amelek; Satan.  Satan would have gladly ended the conflict with God right there in the wilderness through the Amalekites dwelling at the foot of Sinai; but God did not allow Him to do so. 

Unfortunately, not all of the Amalekites were in this group that came against Israel in the wilderness.  There were more of them scattered in the land and hiding out in other places. Israel would encounter them again and again as history turned its pages. God wanted this “first time” to be noted and remembered.  If you are going to win a battle against evil; you must beware of the correct identity of the enemy.  He told Moses to write it down in a scroll.  That meant THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER!  So Moses did what God instructed and wrote it all down; then he built an altar and called it The LORD Is My Banner.

Moses proclaimed the following words to The People of God:  “Because hands were lifted up against the throne of the LORD, the LORD will be at war against Amalekites from generation to generation.”  God must have given Moses yet another glimpse into the future in order for him to make that statement.  It has turned out to be a true prophecy, happening over and over again. 

Generation after generation of The People of God have fought against the spirit of the Amalekites all throughout time.  It is obvious that the enemy of God is the spirit living within and controlling such people who would think nothing of destroying the precious children of God and abolishing God's ways from the earth.  

The name Amelek has now become synonymous with evil and evil ways.  This first encounter was definitely not the last encounter with such a spirit of people. 

From the scriptures scattered throughout the bible It seems that God has plans to bring yet another, last, end-time, victorious battle against Amelek and the spirit of evil that he portrays.  Once more there will be a supernatural and victorious battle fought, and it will be a final one to end this name of Amelek forever and wipe it completely from the face of the earth.  We must all stand like Moses, with lifted hands before God and join in the battle cry.  We must trust the Three-In-One God who will equip us for battle and led us to victory when the time approaches.  God will help us to overcome, just as He helped Moses, Aaron and Hur.  We must stay firmly planted on The Rock, just as Moses did, with our arms lifted high in worship toward our Mighty God.  On that day, God will stretch out his staff and save the flock of His people.    

COME AS A CHILD LESSON 123 DEAD LIVESTOCK BOILS AND A VERY BAD HAILSTORM

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Once again, God told Moses to take a message to Pharaoh.  God said to tell him “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.  If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back, the hand of the LORD will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field – on your horses, donkeys and camels and on your cattle, sheep and goats.  But the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt; that no animal belonging to the Israelite's will die.” 

God was not happy!  He was about to show the world WHO He was not happy with by making a distinction between the Israelites (who desired to worship Him) and the Egyptians who had turned to false, pagan gods and ways.  Not only was Pharaoh calling himself god and encouraging the people of Egypt to worship all kinds of other pagan false gods too; he was preventing the ones who wanted to worship the REAL God from worshiping Him in the way that He had commanded.  Pharaoh was being very selfish with his arrogance!  

God had been very patient with Pharaoh up to this point.  The REAL God is never arrogant or selfish, but He always considers the love of His people and his anger was righteous in that His people were not being treated fair.  This wasn't all about physical slavery; it was also very much about religious freedom of choice.  It was more about spiritual slavery than physical slavery.

Pharaoh was putting himself and his false gods above The One True God and His people.  The commandments had not been written down in stone yet; but they were already God's ways.  "Thou shalt have no other God's before me" and "Thou shalt keep the Sabbath holy" were being severely violated in a million different ways.  God was going to make this very plain before everything was over in his dealing with Pharaoh and Egypt.  Are you beginning to see how Pharaoh's rise to power had simply been God allowing it to happen so that He could show the entire universe who God is?   

Once again God set a time for these things He had proclaimed to happen.  Pharaoh could have changed his mind in plenty of time to stop it.  He had at least 24 hours to think it over and change.  Moses told Pharaoh that the plague would come “tomorrow.”  Pharaoh, as usual did not relent.

The next day the LORD sent the plague and all the livestock in the fields of Egypt died.

Still Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not let the people go to worship God in the wilderness.

What does it mean that God sent the Egyptians a plague involving livestock?  Well, the Egyptians worshiped most forms of livestock.  Can you see the pattern here?  They thought many of these animals were sacred, but they did not even consider that The One True God was sacred.

Once the Persians were victorious in a great battle against the Egyptians simply because they drove their sacred animals in front of them into the battle field.  The Egyptians would not fight for fear of harming the sacred animals!  This gave the Persians an easy win.  You would think that battle alone might have changed their way of thinking.  It did not.  The Egyptians just kept right on worshiping their false gods.   Hathor was the Egyptian cow-headed god that protected cattle herds.   Apis was an Egyptian bull god.    

So as these pitiful Egyptians were sitting around with their hard-hearted king after they had finished burying an unbelievable amount of their dead livestock; God spoke to Moses and Aaron again.  

God told Aaron to take hands full of soot from a furnace and have Moses toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh.  It was to become fine dust that would scatter over the whole land of Egypt, and soon festering boils would begin to break out on the people and the animals that were left throughout the land.  

Moses and Aaron did exactly as God had said, they stood in front of Pharaoh and Moses tossed the soot into the air and soon festering boils broke out on all the people and animals.  Even Pharaoh’s famous magicians were covered with boils and they could not serve in their pagan temples or stand in front of Moses because of the boils.  

This time the scriptures say that the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that he would not listen to Moses and Aaron.  It becomes so apparent that God was using Pharaoh, probably because of his horrid choices in lifestyle and his arrogance in saying he was god over all gods, to prove a very important point.  I think I get it; do you?  I don't think Pharaoh was getting it though!

So there was Pharaoh with a nation full of people covered in boils and a country full of dead animals.  They were all sick and they had no meat for their tables (if they ate meat, they probably only ate certain animals that were not considered sacred) and they had lost all of their basic modes of transportation. 

 Even worse, the animals that they worshiped were dying in the streets.  Who was going to protect them now?   Why were their gods dying?

Pharaoh did not seem to care as much for the people as he did about having his own way and being the only one in control  He still was not able to humble himself before God and do as God had said to do. 

But why boils?  What did they have to do with pagan gods being worshiped?  Well - when God told Moses to lift his hands toward the heavens and scatter the ashes, God was probably thinking of those false sky gods they worshiped; Horis, Shu, Isis and Nut.  It was the custom of their priests to scatter ashes from sacrifices as a sign of blessing.  I guess the land of Egypt was symbolic of their sacrifices and Moses was mimicking their priests; but this did not bring blessings at all; it brought boils!  God was showing the REAL blessings of worshiping these false gods.  

God spoke to Moses again and told him to get up early the next morning and go confront Pharaoh once more and say to him; “This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews says:  'Let my people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.  For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth.,  But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.  You still set yourself against my people and will not let them go.  Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now. Give an order to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every person and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die.'"

I guess the only livestock that was left were chickens and pigs and any livestock that had not been out in the field when God had brought the plague on the other livestock earlier.  Of course the slaves were considered nothing less than livestock to the Egyptians.  So those officials who had learned to believe God brought all of their remaining livestock and their slaves inside.  Those who did not fear God did not worry about these new instructions to Pharaoh. 

Then the LORD said to Moses:  “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that the hail may fall all over Egypt – on people and on animals and on everything growing in the fields of Egypt."   

Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky and the LORD sent thunder and lightning and hail and the lightning flashed down to the ground.  It was the worst storm in Egypt since it had become a nation.  People and animals and all the vegetation were beat down into the ground by the pounding lightning and hail from this storm.  The flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley crop was almost ready to harvest in the fields and the flax was also already in bloom.  The wheat and spelt however, were not destroyed because they would not ripen until later in the year.   All the land and trees were stripped of their vegetation.  The goodness of the rich land was destroyed everywhere, except for the land of Goshen where God’s people were living.  They were safe from the storm and their crops were still in tact.  

Until now the desert land of Egypt had hardly known rain, much less hail or thunder and lightning.  They got their water for the land and crops from the river.  These Egyptians had probably never even seen hail or lightning.  Where were their sky gods who should be protecting them from such things falling from the sky?  Mim's party would not happen this year!  Would this open the eyes of Pharaoh? 

Mim was their false god of agriculture.  Before the coming of this plague the people  had been preparing for the annual festival for Mim where they offered sacrifices to him as their god of agriculture.  Where was he in all of this?  All of their ripening crops had been destroyed.  The Hebrews had not worshiped these Egyptian false gods and their crops were all still in place.  The Hebrews would have offerings to bring to their God when the time for their offerings came; if only Pharaoh would let them go out to do it.  Would this open Pharaoh's eyes?

For the first time, it did seem to have an affect on Pharaoh in which he recognized the One True God of the Hebrews.  When Pharaoh came out and saw the devastation to his land and his people he summoned Moses.  This time Pharaoh admitted that he had sinned.  He actually said to Moses and Aaron; “The LORD is in the right and I and my people are in the wrong.  Pray to the LORD, for we have had enough thunder and hail.  I will let you go; you don’t have to stay any longer.” 

What an amazing break-through!   

But Moses still wasn’t so sure that Pharaoh would actually keep his word.  God had been talking to Moses and He had told him how Pharaoh would react.    

So Moses told Pharaoh when he left the city he would spread out his hands toward the LORD in prayer; and the thunder would stop and there will be no more hail, all so Pharaoh could know that the earth is the LORD’S.  But he also told Pharaoh that he knew he and his officials still did not fear the LORD God. 

Nevertheless;  Moses went out of the city and spread out his hands toward the LORD and the thunder and hail soon stopped.  The rain no longer poured down on the land.  When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he sinned again.  He and his officials hardened their hearts and Pharaoh did not let the Israelites go; just as the LORD had said to Moses.

I found it interesting that Moses even had to leave the city where Pharaoh lived in order to be heard by God.  Apparently, God turns a deaf ear to cities that are ruled by pagans!   

The worship in ancient Egypt was mostly polytheistic.  To better understand the plagues of Egypt it is helpful to understand the false pagan gods that Egypt worshiped, then begin to look closer at what God was showing them and us through all of the plagues. 

On first glance the worship of Egypt seemed like a very chaotic and unorganized religion with many, many gods, and it actually started out that way; but an order seemed to evolve in all of it when their own (made up) version of the telling of the story of creation came forth.

 

In the Egyptian version of the creation story there was only one ocean at the beginning of time.  From that ocean rose a god named Ra, who represented the sun.  Apparently Ra was hatched either from a flower or an egg that rose from the ocean.  (There are different conflicting stories about this.)  When Ra appeared as the sun on the surface of the water he brought forth four children, who were also gods.  They were the males, Shu and Geb and the females,  Tefnut and Nut.  Shu and Tefnut became the atmosphere and they stood on Geb who became the earth and Geb raised up Nut who became the sky.  Ra ruled over all.  

Geb and Nut had two sons, Set and Osiris.   Then Geb and Nut had two daughters; Isis and Nephthys.  Osiris married his sister ( Isis) and succeeded Ra on the throne as king over all the earth.  Set hated his brother, Osiris and he killed him. (Counterfeit story similar to Cain and Abel in the Bible.) Isis, with the help of one named Anubis, embalmed the body of Osiris and because he had helped Isis with this task Anubis became known as the god of embalming the dead.   

Isis resurrected Osiris with her powerful charms and he became the god of the netherworld (the land of the dead.)  Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis later defeated Set and became the god of the earth.  

And so the outrageous counterfeit stories continue through the generations of many false gods.  From these stories came the nine divinities called enneads and the triad consisting of a divine mother, father and son.  Every local temple in Egypt possessed its own local ennead and triad.  Of course the greatest ennead was that of Ra and his children and grandchildren.  These were worshiped at Heliopolis, the center for sun worship.  

You are possibly beginning to see a lot of resemblance here to the order of how God destined Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to be the patriarchs of The Great Family of God.  These Egyptian false gods were all fake counter-versions of the ones with the REAL power from the REAL God.  They were fakes made up as imitations of what God had truly ordained and created when He first created the earth and mankind.     

In the Egyptian triads you can see the perversion and counterfeit of the True Holy Family of God and the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  

Some of the local gods were taken from ideas of other foreign deities or patterned after the animal gods of prehistoric  Africa.  Eventually all of these fused into one big religious picture in Egypt.  Among the more famous false gods were:  Amon, Thoth, Ptah, Khnemu and Hapi.  The famous false goddesses were Hathor, Mut, Neit and Skehet.  To make matters worse, these deities were sometimes confused with human beings who had been glorified after death.  These false gods had the abilities to change from god to human to god and back to humans or animals; whatever was most convenient at the time to achieve their purposes.  

During the 5^th Dynasty the Pharaohs began to claim their divinity among all of these.  All of the Pharaoh’s were known as the sons of Ra.  Minor false gods and demons took on a more local form and were worshiped in the temples along with the other gods.  All of these gods were depicted with human torsos and human or animal heads.  If the head was an animal, the animal usually expressed the characteristics of that god.  For example, RA had the head of a hawk and a hawk was sacred to him because of its swift flight across the sky.  Hathor was the goddess of love and laughter and she had the head of a cow.  The sacred animals were venerated by the Egyptians because of the gods they were associated with or attached to.  

The animals themselves were not actually worshiped until the 26^th Dynasty.  Each of these pagan gods had their own symbol.  Ra had the sun as his sybol and Ra was always the most important and the most consistently worshiped god.  Ra worship eventually evolved into the status of a state religion which governed over the people in the land.  Ra fused with Amon at one point becoming Ra-Amon  and was noted as the supreme god of the land of Egypt during that time.  

The Egyptians believed that the amulets and statutes they made protected them from both real and imagined powers from the underworld, both in life and after death.  They put these small statues inside their tombs when they died,  They kept them with them for protection and the statues were to serve for them in the afterlife.  The Egyptians believed there would be fields to tend to in the afterlife, and their statues were there to help them with the undesirable part of that work which they would not want to do.  So the theory seemed to be that the more you had of these little gods; the better off you were in the afterlife    They believed these little statues would somehow magically come alive in the afterlife and perform their chores for them.

No wonder God was angry enough to send plagues!  He was actually very merciful to the people of Egypt.  It would have been much easier to just wipe them off the map.  But God put object lessons into each plague, hoping to teach the Egyptians that He was the Only True God of Heaven and Earth.  Hopefully, even though the Egyptians did not learn this lesson; we who are reviewing the story will.

If you know what to look for in the modern world today; you can see all of these things of idol worship and pagan worship still being carried out, just in un-obvious and subtle ways.  It is right under our noses every day, but we have been so conditioned to this over millions of years; just as the people of Egypt were.  We do not even notice what is happening in front of our very faces when we see these things.  Like in Egypt, they have become a part of the culture.  

There is lots of false worship and lots of fake religion going on in America and in many other nations.  Will God be as generous and as merciful to us as He was to the ancient Egyptians?  After all, they had no examples to teach them.  We had them and their stories as our example.  What excuses do we have to offer?  We have all seen and heard these object lessons over and over.  

If you have ever attended a Passover Seder; you should understand all of the mysteries behind the plagues.  It is a standard part of the telling of the Passover every year.  There is more to tell later about this subject; but for now it is hard enough just to consider what must be going through the mind of God when He looks down on earth today and searches to see if there is anyone similar to Moses, that would be willing to honor His name and be true to worship Him and Him alone.  

One greater than Moses has come!  His name is Jesus.  Have we even listened to Him?

Time will give us these answers.  Lord have mercy on us!   

COME AS A CHILD LESSON 118 - WHEN YOUR BEST EFFORTS ARE JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH

So by now Moses had his personal life with God straightened out, and both sons most likely had been circumcised (remember we think there is a possibility that the youngest son was not quite eight days old when God got mad about the first son not being circumcised, so probably he was circumcised shortly after that incident.)  

It seemed that Moses must have gone back to Midian, taking Zipporah and the boys back home for awhile.  They needed to heal and would not be able to make the long journey to Egypt until they recovered from the circumscism.  Moses would need to go without them.  They could join him later.   

God still had to deal with the fact that Moses was not wanting to be the speaker for him with Pharaoh.  Moses must have gone to Mt. Horeb to discuss this with God up on the Holy Ground where he had seen the burning bush.  We know that Moses was there because that is where Aaron found him when he sought him out because God had commissioned him to do so.  Possibly Jethro told Aaron where to look?  We are not certain how this transpired, but the two long lost brothers did meet on the Mountain of God.

So much of this reminds me of the relationship today of the Christians and Jews.  When will they find out they are REAL brothers?  When will one believe another?  It seems a lot of miracles take place up on The Mountain of God.  It will be like watching Moses and Aaron when this finally happens and the family is reunited.  Well - on with the current story.....

The LORD said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So Aaron went to meet Moses at The Mountain of God.   

It had been forty years since Moses had seen Aaron.  Aaron had been a slave and Moses had been a Prince of Pharaoh.  They probably had never accomplished that natural closeness that most brothers are able to develop.  They knew each other; but they didn't KNOW each other.   

Now that Moses understood that Aaron was his real brother, God brought the two together out in the wilderness on top of His mountain and then God began to instruct them on their mission.  The scriptures indicate that the brothers embraced.  The word used in the scriptures is "kiss," and it indicates that God was a part of this scene as well as the brothers.   God must have quickly repaired their relationship and brought them to the point of brotherly love.  It was customary for those cultures when meeting close friends and relatives to embrace and kiss both sides of the face.   

Moses explained to Aaron everything the LORD had been saying to him.  Perhaps that is why they went up to Mt. Horeb, so that Moses could show Aaron where he had this amazing experience with the burning bush.  Moses explained all the signs  and the things that God had commanded for him and Aaron to say to Pharaoh and the two headed off for Egypt together.

When they arrived, Aaron gathered all of the elders of the Israelites and told them everything the LORD had said to Moses.  They performed the signs before the people and the people believed.  The people were so relieved to hear that God was concerned for them and their misery!   They bowed down and worshiped God. 

So with the backing of the people of Israel, Moses and Aaron went before Pharaoh and said:  “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says:  ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’”

Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go?  I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go.”

Moses and Aaron told Pharaoh:  “The God of the Hebrews has met with us.  Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, or He may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”

The request to take a three day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to God is such a foreshadowing of the time when Jesus Christ was sacrificed for our sins and spent three days and three nights in the grave.  God was setting this pattern in motion with his people way back in the days of Moses speaking to Pharaoh.  Moses points out that without this journey there would be plagues or death by the sword, and this is what our salvation redeems us from.  Moses was so hopeful of redeeming the Children of Israel.   Pharaoh, however, was not in a listening mood.  

God's anger was the least of Pharaoh's concerns.  Pharaoh was disturbed that Moses and Aaron were taking the people away from their labor.  He told them all to get back to work.  He was angry with Moses and Aaron.   He gave orders to his slave drivers and overseers to no longer supply the people with straw for making bricks; but they had to go and gather their own straw, making their work much harder.  

This is so typical to what happens to someone desiring to worship God with all of their heart.  Satan is not concerned; except for his own causes.  He does all kinds of things to prevent this time alone with God from happening.  He might remove the essentials for survival, such as happened to the Israelites with Pharaoh's taskmasters.  He will do anything to make it hard for you to be totally dedicated to worshiping The One True God.  

Even though The Children of Israel had more work added on, they were required to make the same number of bricks as before.  This meant longer, even harder days of unreasonable labor without rest.    Pharaoh declared them to be lazy and claimed they were making excuses not to work by crying out through Moses and Aaron.  He called them liars and told his overseers to pay no attention to them if they cried out.  The slave drivers complied to Pharaoh’s demands.  When the people did not make their quota of bricks they beat them.  When the people complained to Pharaoh he just called them lazy and said they wanted to get out of their work and that was why they were saying they needed to go out to the wilderness to worship their God. 

When Pharaoh would not relent and The Children of Israel saw they now had twice as much work to contend with; they were angry with Moses and Aaron.  They complained to them that their suggestions had made Pharaoh even harder on them than before, and now they had lost any favor that they might have gained with working hard for Pharaoh in the past.  They were angry and frustrated!  Their faith began to crumble.  They told Moses and Aaron “May the LORD look upon you and judge you!”

So Moses went back to talk to God.  He had one question:  “Why?”  Why God?  Why have you brought judgment on these people instead of deliverance?  Why did you ask me to go and cause all of this trouble for them?

Now Moses was homeless, without any friends, tired and worn out and missing his family in Midian.  His mission now looked like a complete failure.  All he could do was sit with his questions for God as the people suffered more and more.  

What does one do if they have been obedient to God and things go south anyway?  

Should one be patient and keep trusting in spite of the horrible circumstances? 

Sometimes it always looks darkest just before the dawn.

COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 116 - SOMETIMES YOU JUST NEED A BROTHER TO HELP

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

So we left Moses standing there in front of the burning bush where he was clearly hearing the voice of God saying; GO!  Tell Pharaoh to let my people go!

Thinking about all the things that God had already said to Moses, I am reminded of the lyrics of that beautiful old hymn called “Here I Am Lord” especially when I read these lyrics:

I, the Lord of sea and sky,
I have heard My people cry.
All who dwell in dark and sin,
My hand will save.
I who made the stars of night,
I will make their darkness bright.
Who will bear My light to them?
Whom shall I send?

Well, God was definitely set on sending Moses.  Moses, on the other hand, being so very human, had all these questions; “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you?’

So God tries to help him out.  God says to Moses “What is that in your hand?”  Moses replies that he is holding a staff. The LORD said, “Throw it on the ground.”

So Moses throws his staff on the ground and right before his eyes it becomes a snake.  Yikes!  He ran from it!  But God called down to him; “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.”  So, as frightened as he was, that is what Moses did.  Instantly the snake turned back into a staff.

As Moses stood in amazement, God explained what was going on.  “This is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob – has appeared to you.”

God wasn’t through yet.  He told Moses to put his hand inside his cloak.  When Moses did this and then took his hand out again it was covered with leprosy, white as snow.  That must have felt pretty horrible! God then told Moses to put his hand back inside his cloak.  When Moses did this and pulled his hand out again,  his hand was restored! 

Well, Moses must have been amazed and God kept giving him even more instructions:  “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second.  If they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground.  The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”

All of this was astounding and amazing and it  should have convinced Moses that everything was okay; but Moses seemed to have a little confidence problem.  He brought up the fact that he had never been an eloquent speaker.  He mentioned that his speech was slow and his tongue did not always cooperate. 

God didn’t blink.  As a matter of fact, he got more aggressive with his plans for Moses. 

Moses obviously needed a few reminders!

I can imagine God’s voice becoming a whole lot louder with each statement as He addressed Moses with the obvious: 
“Who gave human beings their mouths?”
“Who makes them deaf or mute?”
“Who gives them sight or makes them blind?”
“Is it not I, the LORD?”

“Now go, I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

Well, you would think Moses’ confidence would have greatly improved by now.  Nope!  He gets even more shy and timid and says the unthinkable back to God:  “Please send someone else.”

Oh my, all the angels in heaven must have been terrified in that moment!  God had already given angry answers.  How could Moses say such a thing?  But he did say it; and the LORD’s anger burned against him! 

Folks, you can mark this down.  God is going to do what God is going to do!  If he doesn’t use you or me or Moses, He will command the rocks to do His will.  The will of God is destined to come about.  No exceptions, one way or the other!  Why are we so stubborn to that fact?  Taking this into consideration, I would say God showed a lot of patience with Moses.

“What about your brother, Aaron the Levite?  I know he can speak well.  He is already on his way to meet you and he will be glad to see you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.  But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”

One cannot help but remember how back in Egypt Moses had played second to his brother Ramses.  He had not wanted the responsibility of being in charge.  Now those same old tendencies were creeping back up, things he thought he had changed when he moved on to Midian.  God saw the problem and he brought Aaron to help, but he clearly told Moses to pick up the staff and keep it.  

It was Moses that God was going to use, however it took to get him there. 

They were no longer subject to Egypt, and God was calling the shots in this game.  God was about to teach Moses something he should have learned years ago; how to stand up to a Pharaoh. 

We all have Pharaohs; those people that are oppressing us against our will and holding us in bondage.  It takes God entering our lives, bringing His power to us, to give us the strength to stand up and face these people who have no rights over us.  

It never hurts when your brother knows your needs, agrees with you and goes along for moral support.  In the end you both will realize that it was the power of God that saved the day, and nothing that any man could do.  

If God is for you; who can stand against you?  Moses was about to discover the truth of this statement.  He picked up the staff and headed down the road.