THE SUKKAH STORY PART THREE

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

THE SUKKAH OF MOSES

Now you have heard the stories of Abraham’s sukkah which might have been the very first one.  You have heard the story of the sukkah that sheltered The Christ Child; the most important one.  But now I must tell you of the sukkah of Moses; the one which God proclaimed we should always remember at our feasts and festivals.

I’m sure you have heard of the child Moses who was the baby hiding in the

bulrushes of the river.  He was found by an Egyptian princess and grew up Egyptian, though later he found out he was actually a Hebrew.  The Hebrews were slaves of the Egyptians at the time and God used Moses in a mighty way to lead God’s people out of the bondage of slavery and to The Promised Land, the land that Abraham had been promised so many years before Moses was born.

Moses was born after Abraham and before Christ.  Moses lead the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt into the wilderness where they lived in temporary shelters, similar to our sukkahs.  They also had a temporary shelter for God Himself!  They called it a Mishkan (Tabernacle).  A cloud of glory hovered over God’s Mishkan by day and a pillar of fire hovered over God’s Mishkan by night. 

When the cloud moved during the daytime, the people took down their temporary dwellings, packed them up, and moved with the cloud of God. Once there, when the cloud stopped moving, they rebuilt their temporary dwellings which were more like tents and made all the doors of their tents face God’s Mishkan. 

When the pillar of fire moved at night, the people took down their temporary dwellings, packed them up and moved with the pillar of fire from God.  When the piller of fire stopped moving, the people rebuilt their temporary dwellings which looked a lot like tents, and they made all the doors of their tents face God’s Mishkan.

Moses was given directions from God on how to decorate and arrange the Mishkan they built for God’s temporary dwelling among the people.  All of God’s people brought their gifts and talents and participated in the decorating of the Mishkan where they would go to dwell with God. 

We remember Moses and his leadership in the wilderness during Sukkot.  

We think of the freedom that Moses helped God to give to the people.  

We think of the holy worship that went on between Moses and God and how that was shared with the people traveling through the wilderness.  

They would worship in the Mishkan, God’s temporary dwelling.  We build our sukkahs in order to remember how God provided all that was needed for the People of God in the wilderness.  

We give thanks, just as they did for the blessings that God has given to us over the last year of our life. 

Just as Moses led the People of God to decorate the Mishkan (God’s temporary dwelling) in the wilderness, we too will decorate our sukkahs. 

What will you do to give beauty that honors God to our sukkah?  

What decoration will you make, or what special thing can you bring inside? 

 Moses brought his leadership.  
Miriam brought her dancing.  
Aaron spoke eloquently to the people; that was his gift.  

Perhaps someone has a poem or a craft or a picture to hang on the walls of our sukkah?  

Perhaps someone has a special song to sing or a special story to tell?  

Even a tiny little baby can bring a cry or a smile!

Everyone has some way to decorate the Sukkah with their presence.

We must bring God our best as we worship God in beauty and holiness inside the sukkah!

Like the people of God we travel to our feast not knowing what will transpire when we get there.  We are totally dependent on God for our blessings.  We go to the feast because God commanded us to go.  We take glad hearts and happy hands with us to the Feast of Tabernacles! 

Sometimes, like the people who went with Moses when God said “Go,” we go with no money in our pockets and no food in our suitcases, but God provides what we need.  

God gave the people in the wilderness with Moses manna to eat!  Bread from Heaven!  

God gave them pure water to drink right from a special rock that moved along with them.  Our Rock is Jesus!  He moves right along with us.  He will provide festival food and drink for us too. 

 Sometimes God uses other people to bring his blessings through to us at our feast.  The love and companionship they bring is their decoration!

Sometimes people use their talent for cooking to bring festive foods into the sukkah.  The food they bring is their decoration! 

There are a million beautiful ways to decorate the sukkah and make it beautiful; either physically, spiritually or mentally. 

So, What will you bring?

As we enjoy the gifts of the sukkah and invite God to come and live within our sukkahs with us, we will be thinking and remembering all the stories and in our hearts we will KNOW that: 

Just as the stars keep shining and the waves of the sea keep brushing the sand on the shore, God’s blessings will pour out to us by the acts of the people who love Him. 

Just as the pillar of cloud brought glory to God, the people celebrating Sukkot will bring glory to God.  

Just as the cloud hovered over the covering of the Mishkan of God, the glory of God will hover in the beautiful clouds that float over our sukkahs as we feast before God and give our thanks for the blessings of the year gone by. 

Above all things we know that God is leading us to a very special place, just as He led the people of Moses to the promised land.  We will enjoy the earthly journeys in our sukkahs and be thankful that:

GOD ALWAYS KEEPS HIS PROMISES!

COME AS A CHILD LESSON 137 MOSES HAS A FAMILY REUNION

MOSES HAS A FAMILY REUNION

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Remember that Moses had a father-in-law still living the life of a pagan priest back in Midian? His name was Jethro.  Moses had entrusted his wife and children to Jethro's keeping while he tended to the things that God had commanded him to do.  

Word of mouth travels fast and Jethro heard of how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt.   He marveled at all the things that had happened to Moses since leaving Midian. 

Do you remember the details of the Midianites?  The Midianites (Jethro’s people) were descendants of Abraham through his wife Keturah.  They were descendants from her son named Midian.  Remember how Abraham was good to all of these sons by Keturah?  He raised them, but he did not force them to accept his culture.  After they were all grown he sent them off with their portion of the inheritance.  Some suppose this was to protect them from trying to claim any of the intended inheritance of Isaac.  If you need to refresh your memory about the marriage of Abraham to Keturah just follow this link:  ABRAHAM AND KE`TURAH.

Midian was one of these sons  that Abraham “sent off” with his inheritance when he became a man.  After he left Abraham’s home, he settled somewhere near Mount Horeb.  This is the place where his descendants eventually lived and it was Jethro’s homeland.   Midian, being a son of Abraham’s concubine/wife, would have been exposed to the knowledge of Abraham’s God, but he was also friends with Ishmael, who would have influenced him to do things that were contrary to the ways of God.  Ishmael’s influence seems to have won out because the people living in Midian had some very pagan ways. 

The fact that Jethro was a pagan Midian priest probably meant that he would have worshiped Baal Peor and Asherah.  This would not have mattered much to Moses when he first came to Midian; because at that time Moses had not yet experienced the burning bush and encountered The True God.  Moses knew very little of God’s ways when he first came to Midian.  On the contrary; the pagan ways of the Egyptians that Moses had grown up with might have influenced Moses so much that the ways of Jethro, as a Midian priest, would not have seemed so strange. 

The things we know of this fake god called Baal Peor are really disgusting.  I see no good reason to go into great detail here; except to say I definitely understand why God would have been very angry with any worship of such a horrible fake deity.  The practices of the Baal religion were abominable.  Many of the rituals involved perversions and sexual acts before the gods.  The fake goddess, Asherah, was known as the female counterpart to this gross pagan god named Baal.  Her practices were just as disgusting as his; and everything they both did (or were deemed to do - since they were not real) was terribly abominable.  Asherah was said to have worshiped Baal Peor mostly for perverted sexual reasons.  She was known as the fertility goddess of the land.  The practices of the people who worshiped these false gods were sickening and awful to imagine; yet, Jethro, was a pagan priest of Midian; hence it is most likely that he was participating in such things, even though he was described as an honorable and glorious man and in his position as the Priest of Midian; he was well respected.  Strange; but true. 

In those days, just as in the present days in which we live; there were cultures that had no moral compass; and with their religious practices it seemed that “anything goes” was the main mode of worship.  They thought nothing of things godly people of today would find terribly wrong and uncivilized.  Midian was like this; but at the same time it was friendly and welcoming and peaceful; it became the place of refuge for Moses as he ran from Egypt after he murdered the Egyptian.  If you could overlook or not become involved with their religious rites; Midian was probably a peaceful and happy place in which to live.  You could say the same thing about Sodom and Gomorrah too.  Often the most wicked places are hidden among the most peaceful and hospitable places.  That is where we need God's Holy Spirit to give us discernment and guidance.  Moses did not have that luxury when he first came to live in Midian.  

It is even possible that Moses could have participated in the Midian religious practices from time to time.  We do not know for sure.  We do know that the Egyptian culture Moses grew up in was very pagan; so these things of Midian might not have seemed so strange to him at the time.  More than likely, Zipporah, the woman Jethro offered to Moses for a wife, also had pagan ways. 

   
We are told so very little about this Midian wife of Moses.  

I tend to believe that Zipporah came to know God through the stories that Moses brought home to her after his encounter with the burning bush.  None of this is spelled out in the scripture exactly; but the few things that are mentioned about Zipporah suggest that she had become a child of God in spite of her pagan upbringing.  If you need to refresh your memory on some of Zipporah's godly actions; reread the lesson we covered about how she circumcised the first born son of Moses:  HOW ZIPPORAH CAME TO CIRCUMCISE HER FIRST BORN SON,  

Zipporah was definitely a help to Moses following God and not a hindrance, as a few scholars have suggested.  Her obedience at one point actually saved Moses' life.  On that day she had much more spiritual discernment than Moses.  I believe it happened that way because she had converted to the ways of Israel in her heart and had begun to follow God whenever Moses did.  This is merely speculation on my part from the little pieces of the story that are given.  

It is probably shocking for anyone who has grown up hearing all of the wonderful stories of the life of Moses to think of him ever living in this pagan lifestyle of the Midians.   Yet; before Moses met God in the burning bush; he was basically a pagan too.  His blood was Hebrew; but his training was not.  Perhaps the time he was looked after by his own mother disguised as just another Hebrew nurse would have had an effect on Moses; and perhaps that is why he became sympathetic to the plot of his natural family when he learned the truth of his heritage; but, many, many years had passed and all those years were years Moses had lived in pagan cultures.  He basically lived a pagan life for at least 80 years before he met God and began to be taught the proper way to live directly by God.  This fact alone should give hope to many living in our broken world today! 

Keeping all of these things in mind; Moses probably didn’t give much thought to Jethro’s strange religious practices until he encountered The One True God.

After God revealed himself to Moses though; things in his life changed drastically.  Jethro must have been totally confused with the new Moses that evolved from that day forward.  Perhaps the conversion of Zipporah also confused and disappointed Jethro.  What father wants his daughter to change from the way he has raised her?   Who knows how many family relationships were strained after Moses began to learn of the holiness of God and a better way to live.  

These are not really such odd circumstances.  The same such situations are actually happening all the time every where on earth.  People are converted to God and they have a change of heart that produces a change in lifestyle.  They are invited to bloom where they are planted.  If they were converted in an evil and wicked culture; it will not go away just because God choses to bring them to a new understanding.  They must continue to live and function in the old world, though their spirit has been renewed.  Hence; we often find good and evil coexisting simultaneously together; not even being bothered with each other, and carrying on their own private business in their own private ways all the time.  

Even in the Christian cultures of today, there are people quietly living among us who are practicing these same disgusting, abominable religious rites and rituals which give homage to pagan gods and idols just as the Midians did.  We simply never know about these people or even notice them as being different because we are not exposed to that part of their lives.  They see what we believe and they do not share this with us.  On the surface, these people appear to be just like the people who have chosen to follow God.  They appear to be good, honest and humble.  We only see their daily interactions in the world and those interactions seem just the same; good, honorable and noble.  No one sees the hidden pagan practices except those who are actually participating in the rituals.  That is the type of picture I first got of Jethro.  He appeared to be loved and respected by all the people in every way, despite his strange pagan practices.

So we note that except for his weird religious practices; which the culture in Midian had totally accepted as normal; Jethro was considered to be a very sound citizen, one who was charming and wise and loved by all of the people.  He exuded humility and grace in every other way.  He was studious and often joyful and kind and loving toward his neighbors.  He seemed to be a loving and caring father. He had been very good to Moses at a time when Moses needed a friend.

Jethro had treated Moses as a beloved son; thinking he was an Egyptian who would be a good match for his daughter.   Moses had a love and respect for this man; no matter his odd religious practices.  Like so many times when someone converts to Christianity; those who were former friends and relatives are STILL their friends and relatives.  You do not change your relationships when you become a Christian; you simply change your ways and actions within those relationships to something that is more pleasing to God.  You hope your changed actions speak of your love and devotion for God to those who notice the change.  You strive to live in harmony and peace with all people; especially those who have been good to you in the past.  

This seemed to be the case with Moses and Jethro.  Moses did not wish to harm or upset Jethro; yet; I’m sure as time went on Moses was becoming more and more uncomfortable with the way of life in Midian, and the fact that he had married into a family ruled over by a Midian priest.  Moses seemed to be an expert in finding difficult situations in which to live his life!

Obviously, Moses eventually felt that God wanted him to leave Midian, and that had now proved out.  Zipporah’s feelings are not really explained here; but I’m sure she had mixed emotions if she had grown up in the culture of her father and had no other influences toward the ways of God. Her conversion had to be deep in order for her to blindly follow Moses from her home and the ways of her father.  She must have known that she would not be able to bring up her sons in the Midian culture and still live a godly life with Moses.  This was a very sharp turn in the road for her.   We understand how faithful she had become when she circumcises her first born son after Moses neglected this godly act.  It was this very thing that had actually caused Moses to send her and the two boys back home temporarily as he went to Egypt to deliver the people for God.  

Zipporah's faith in God and her love for Moses had to be very strong and it appears that maybe she was tested by being sent back all alone into the culture that her heart had left.  Perhaps God wished to see if she would remain true under all circumstances.   She had the good sense to hold on to the hope of returning to Moses and becoming an Israelite herself.  She remained faithful and choose to take her two sons into this new life with her.  Finally the day had come.  Her father was taking them to meet Moses and she must have been very grateful to God.    

The next thing we hear from the scriptures is the fact that they came to him when Moses was camped near The Mountain of God (Mount Horeb.)  Jethro came to see Moses by traveling through the wilderness bringing Zipporah and Moses' two sons Gershom and Eliezer.  Jethro had sent word ahead that he was coming, and Moses went out to meet them.   This must have been quite a reunion for the little family.  Jethro must have had many emotions running through his heart and his head that day.  He must have realized he might never see his daughter, her husband, or his grandsons after this visit was over.  It seems that in spite of all his pagan ways; Jethro was a compassionate man, putting the concern for others over his own desires.  

When Moses saw his father-in-law coming to greet him with his family in tow; he bowed down before him and kissed him.  This was a customary greeting for family in those days, probably an honorable way for a son-in-law to act to his father-in-law.  At any rate it appeared the two men were very glad to see each other.  

Soon the whole family was gathered into Moses’ tent for a happy reunion.  Can’t you just imagine the dinner conversations between these two men?  Moses must have vividly described the details of all that happened with Pharaoh and how God had delivered them from an impossible situation.  Jethro must have taken it all in with wide-eyed astonishment.  

Moses also must have shared with Jethro the hardships they had met along the way and how the LORD had sustained them through these troubles every time.  So Jethro would have heard the stories about the Red Sea crossing, the beauty of Elim, the water that was turned from bitter to sweet at Marah, and the water from the rock at Mirabah.  He would have heard how the Israelites defeated the Amalekites through the power of God.  Jethro must have heard the stories of how the Israelites began to receive food called manna from heaven, and how they had learned to keep the Sabbath because of the way God had miraculously given them their daily bread.  He heard of how the quail had been provided when the people complained of having no meat, and he heard of how the LORD went before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  Jethro must have taken all of this in with amazement.  Surely none of his pagan gods had shown such wonder and might and care for his people! 

I can just imagine Zipporah coming and going with food and water as the two old friends sat at the table and talked just as they had done in days gone by, when Moses was a Shepherd of Midian.  

Zipporah must have been so relieved to be with her husband again, and to have her whole little family in one place under the shelter of his tent.  She must have cherished seeing her husband and her father in deep conversations again.  I wonder how many times Zipporah got caught in the middle of their theological disagreements?  

I can visualize the two young sons of Moses playing nearby, quietly listening to the older men talk of the amazing things that God had done for all of the people of Israel.  They must have missed having their father with them as much as they loved and respected their grandfather.  Perhaps this was the first realization for these young sons that their father and grandfather were very different in their religious beliefs.  Who do you think would carry more weight with them and their thinking as they grew older?  Role models are so important in the formative years of young children.  
  

Jethro was delighted with all of this amazing news that Moses was sharing!  As a priest who related to many gods, (a whole pantheon of them), his first reaction was to give praise to The Lord!  This was certainly a new development!  Jethro KNEW how to worship Moses' God with the same holy actions of Moses; and now Jethro seemed to understand who he should worship and thank for these miracles. His very words were “Praise be to the LORD, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians!"

Moses must have loved hearing such words of praise to God coming from his father-in-law.  

That would not have been so strange for Jethro to do; considering the fact that the Midians believed in plural gods ruling the land.  Perhaps he was simply adding God to his long list of other gods.  This would not work though; God is a jealous God and He does not tolerate His people acknowledging other gods.  

The next thing that Jethro said must have given Moses great hope.  Jethro said “Now I know that the LORD is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly.”  For the first time in a long time; Moses and Jethro could agree on something religious.  It was a start!

I’m sure it pleased Moses to know that Jethro was finally recognizing how great the True God is.  The end of the sentence speaks for itself though; that part where Jethro says that the LORD is greater than all the OTHER GODS pretty much makes it clear that Jethro still believed in MANY gods; not just the One True God.  That part may have made Moses’ heart skip a beat after being so hopeful.  

I’m sure Moses longed for his father-in-law to come to the saving knowledge of The One True God.  Do you not have people in your life that you love very much that are too blind to see who God really is?  Do you not wish with all of your heart that they would come to know the truth?  We all can identify with this!  We all long for our loved ones to come to know The One True God.

I'm sure that Moses and Zipporah must have prayed often for Jethro's eyes to be opened.  Progress seemed to be happening with Jethro; but the task didn’t yet seem to be complete.  Moses was a humble and a patient man.  He simply waited on God to do His work.  

Some of the old Jewish sages seem to think that Jethro had a total change of heart, that he was so moved by this new realization of God's power that he believed ONLY in God and asked to be circumcised and wanted to became a full fledged Israelite.  This isn’t very likely; but we can always hope.  

I tend to think that Jethro’s eyes were opened part of the way but he never fully made a full commitment to believing in only One True God.  The practice of paganism is very hard to overcome.  We do know that Jethro made a good appearance of worshiping as Moses did.  He brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses and his father-in law in the presence of  God.  

If Jethro did not believe fully in the same way as Moses and Aaron; he showed no evidence of this in their presence.  He respected their beliefs and acted as they did before their God.  He seemed truly grateful and happy to be making these sacrifices of thanksgiving.  

Maybe you know a few people who are like this.  They turn to God when it is the popular thing to do.  They seem sincere, but deep in their hearts they are only following the crowd and doing the popular thing.  They fall away the first time that troubles come and they quickly forget the things they appeared to be thanking God for in the public worship ceremonies.  

The people of God are always patient, humble and kind to such worshipers, simply trusting God to show them the rest of the truth.  In turn the people of Israel, including Aaron as high priest and all the elders of the Israelites, also extended the warm hand of fellowship to Jethro.  Things appeared, on the surface to be okay and in harmony.  Jethro made himself at home among the tents of Moses for a time.

The scriptures do not say; and we are left to wonder if Jethro continued to do his pagan rituals while living with the Israelites.  We do not know what his influence actually was with the people in the congregation.  We do not know if he interjected false teachings into the lives of the men following Moses.  Sometimes these things creep into a work of God, sitting silently, festering and boiling up until they become noticed one day much later.  I suspect that Jethro might have swayed a few against the ways of God and toward the worship of idols.  There is no scripture to back this up; it is strictly my own theory.  Someone influenced the people to do wrong later in this story.  It could have been a combination of factors, or it could have been the influence of Jethro who was wondering through the crowds being his charming self as Moses was tending to business.  Moses was often too busy to be spending time with the family in those days.  It is often in those hours when we are most distracted and busy that the devil comes tip-toeing into the camp; unseen and unnoticed.  He likes to come in through the people that we love and trust; and catch us totally off guard.  

One day, in the usual capacity that he had been following since they left Egypt, Moses went up to serve the people as their judge.  He would sit from sunup till sunset for several days in a row, helping the people solve and resolve their disputes in a godly way.  His father-in-law observed this and noticed that it was “all consuming” and that it was taking all of Moses’ time and energy. 

I had to wonder if Zipporah had complained to her father of her husband always being so busy with tending to the people and other things besides tending to their marriage.   Like any good, concerned father-in-law, Jethro inquired of Moses; asking him why he was doing this and allowing it to take up so much of his time.  

Moses explained that he was simply helping the people to understand God’s will.  Moses must have felt the heavy responsibility of this task and he had not taken it lightly.  

Jethro criticized this practice; not that judgment wasn’t needed; but that Moses was the only one who had to preside over every single case.  Jethro advised Moses to be more of a teacher, continuing to teach the people; but to select men who feared God, who were trustworthy and would not exercise dishonest gain to represent Moses as officers over the thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.  Jethro advised Moses to leave the minor things to these men and only have them bring the very difficult cases before Moses. 

Moses listened to the recommendation of the older man and decided to take this advice.

This was the beginning of an order that Moses would form for governing the people of Israel. God must have looked down on two men beginning to make decisions on their own.  Perhaps he decided the time had come for Him to intervene and give some laws to these people in the wilderness so that they could learn how to live better.  There are a lot of new changes coming of which neither Moses nor Jethro are yet aware.  God has His own timing and it is this timing that usually proves who are truly his people.  Men may try to rule their own way; but God always prevails in the end.  Until Jethro appeared; Moses had been only listening to God.  Perhaps God took Moses aside and pointed this fact out.  The next thing we know; Moses is helping his father-in-law pack his bags and we hear of him sending him back to his own home with a blessing for the journey.  It was time for the little family of Moses and Zipporah to began a whole new way of life.  The more time passed, the closer they came to God.  As they began to live a holy lifestyle the pagan things of the past faded into the background.  They were totally committed to the mission God had given them.    

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!