Month: September 2023

V1-5 – When Moses goes complaining to God, the Lord here first responds not with rebuke but with his response for what Pharaoh had said. The Lord says He will show the power of his mighty hand to Pharaoh.

But then from verse 2, the Lord addresses Moses’s doubt. Remember, Moses had gone to the Lord and protested:

Exodus 5: 22-23 NLT – Then Moses went back to the Lord and protested, “Why have you brought all this trouble on your own people, Lord? Why did you send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh as your spokesman, he has been even more brutal to your people. And you have done nothing to rescue them!”

In verses 2-5, God explains to Moses his plan and what He had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and He tells Moses … “You can be sure that I have heard the groans of the people of Israel…………… and I am well aware of my covenant with them.”

In simple terms, the Lord is telling Moses — you don’t have to complain and protest, I am the Almighty God and I have a plan for Israel and I will fulfill it. The Lord was saying that He was not blind and that He was seeing everything that had been happening and was going to deal with it.

In these verses, God is revealing himself to Moses as one who can be completely trusted because He sees the difficulties of his people. He is showing Moses that He can indeed be calm before the Lord and rest in his mighty power. He is never blind to our suffering and so — we don’t have to protest and complain and be discouraged because of the pain.

We have to understand like David and say:

Psalm 56:8 NLT – You keep track of all my sorrows.  You have collected all my tears in your bottle.  You have recorded each one in your book.

David was singing/writing this at the time the Philistines seized him in Gath. He was in trouble, He was in pain. But as we see, David had a different understanding and posture. He continues to sing:

Psalm 56: 9b-11 – This I know: God is on my side! I praise God for what he has promised; yes, I praise the Lord for what he has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me?

God was building Moses’s trust in Him and He is doing the same with us today. Paul and Silas are a great example which we can follow. The Apostle Paul and Silas were in great trouble – they were beaten by rods and severely flogged and then after that, they were imprisoned. But they did not complain or protest to God. This is what they did:

Acts 16: 25 NIV – About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

Paul and Silas put their trust in God. They prayed and sang hymns to the Lord in the midst of that very difficult time for them. And as we see in the verses that follow this, God indeed had a plan to save them and He accomplished it in a great and miraculous way such that even the jailer and his family came to believe in God because of the conduct of Paul and Silas throughout this situation.

So, there are two kinds of people we see here. The “complainers and the discouraged” vs the “trusting and encouraged.”  Ask yourself, which category am I in?

I pray for you and I that the Lord God would strengthen our faith and trust in Him. That we rest knowing that He cares for us and that He knows and understands our pain. I pray that when difficult times come, He will cause us to still be thankful to Him, and to sing and overflow with trust in Him. May his perfect will be done over our lives. Amen

V6-8 – The Lord is always faithful to remind us to trust in Him. He continually gives us his word and asks us to walk in his path. This is what God now does for the Israelites here. He gives them these promises:

• He will free them from their oppression.
• He will rescue them from slavery.
• He will redeem them with a powerful arm and great acts of judgement.
• He will claim them as his own people.
• He will be their God.
• He will bring them into the land He promised their forefathers and make it their possession.

These are great promises from God, the one who lies not and who always fulfills his Word. The striking thing that I see here is that this is not a conditional promise. God says He WILL do it. He will save them and make them his own, and be their God.

This is what the Lord has done for us. He loved us, gave Jesus for us and He made us his own people. Unconditionally. He did all this for us. We are now his people. The saving work is all his—- from the beginning to the end! He has not burdened us with conditions so that He can save us. No, He does it in his mighty power — He sets us free.

Hallelujah! Glory be to the Lord who saves me and makes me his own. It is all his doing and none of me.

What is your reaction to these great promises?

V9 – Unfortunately, the Israelites at this point were the discouraged. The Lord God, creator of all things, was telling them that He will save them and make them his people but they couldn’t listen anymore.

(Lord, help us not to be so downcast such that we don’t listen to you and trust your word. Lord, without you, there is no hope for anything. I pray for all those who are here at this point right now. May you oh Lord, in your mercy, give them strength and revive our hearts once again.)

V10-13 – Moses is still having his encounter of getting to know God. At this point, Moses still is seeing a lot of problems with God’s plan. He objects and still says that He is a clumsy speaker yet the Lord had given him Aaron as his spokesperson.

What I see in these verses is a man who still does not really know who God is. He does not yet know him intimately but as we will see in Exodus, Moses will grow in his knowledge of God. He will learn to completely trust Him.

However, even though Moses still does not yet really know the Lord God who speaks to Him, the Lord still uses him. And the Lord is very patient with Him. God commands Moses and Aaron to lead the people out, whether they get the picture or not.

We are all growing in our knowledge of Him and the more we know Him, the more we trust Him and love Him. We grow in holiness, in our fear of Him, in our purity  and so much more.

2 Peter 3:17-18 NIV – Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

2 Corinthians 7:1 NLT – Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God.

1 Peter 2:2 ESV – Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—

Philippians 1:9-10 Living Bible – My prayer for you is that you will overflow more and more with love for others, and at the same time keep on growing in spiritual knowledge and insight, 10 for I want you always to see clearly the difference between right and wrong, and to be inwardly clean, no one being able to criticize you from now until our Lord returns.

V4 – Pharaoh says that Moses and Aaron are disturbing the people from their work. Remember, Moses and Aaron communicated God’s message that the people were to be set free so that they can worship the Lord. Pharaoh here is the dissenting voice against God’s message.

When the Spirit of God speaks about Good’s purposes, there are always these dissenting voices. They come up to speak negativities and try to reason against God’s word. God’s purposes include his salvation, his call for service, his call for living a holy and pleasing life and more.

What do the dissenting voices say? They say like Pharaoh “Moses and Aaron, why are you distracting the people from their tasks? Get back to work! Look, there are many of your people in the land, and you are stopping them from their work.”

They say:

• “Do you really have time for that?”
• “There is so much work to do.”
• “Here is a better more fun way.”
• “You do not have the capacity to serve God in that way.”
• “Now is not the right time. You can do it another day.”
• “Don’t you think these commands of holiness from God are too demanding?”
• “This entertainment gives me a lot of pleasure. These movies are so fun, it’s the best way to relax after the long day/week I have had.”
• “You are getting distracted from your career path. Focus on the career progression first. You can give God your time later.”
• “You don’t have the money to give to that. You also have needs.”
• “You are too tired to pray and read God’s word.”

In the Bible, here are some of what the dissenting voices said and still do:

Matthew 4: 8-9 NLT – Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

Galatians 5:17 NLT: The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

V6-18 – Pharaoh decides to put even more oppression over the people saying they were lazy and that is why they wanted to leave Egypt. However, you remember that it was actually not the people; it was God’s word and instruction.

The lives of the people therefore much more harder because they now have to still meet their quota of the bricks yet they are not given any straw. It was impossible to make bricks without straw and therefore, the Israelites had to go all over Egypt looking for straw to make the bricks. The slave drivers at the same, punished and pushed them to meet the quota still. It was simply extremely hard and painful.

The opposition and the pain can become harder after God has spoken his purposes. The enemy may try to attack you even more and the temptations to sin may become even stronger. The urge to disobey therefore becomes much stronger.

When they saw how hard it had become to meet the daily quota of bricks after Moses and Aaron spoke to Pharaoh, the foremen said to Moses and Aaron, “May the Lord judge and punish you for making us stink before Pharaoh and his officials. You have put a sword into their hands, an excuse to kill us!”

It becomes so easy to complain yet God has actually meant all this for their good.

God was in the process of saving them but the people were forgetting this because of their pain.  God was setting them free but at that moment, it was not making any sense.

Their previous state of making bricks while being given straw by Pharaoh seemed much more tolerable. It seemed too difficult to persevere and wait for God’s salvation. And so, Pharaoh’s plan of seeking to distract them from even thinking about God’s salvation seemed to work. They were now focused on reducing the pain from the extra work rather than on what God had said.

There are so many times when this also happens in our lives. We get distracted from God’s purposes and God’s word by pain. And so, when the pain and difficulty gets harder, when the temptation to disobey is stronger, what should we do?

V22-23 – Moses went to the Lord and protested. He felt the pain of the people and so his trust in God’s plan was shaken. Remember, God had already spoken to Moses about all his plan to save the people of Israel. But Moses was now shaken, just like the people.

Let’s look at what the Bible says about what to do in these situations:

• Psalm 12:6-8 GOD’S WORD Translation – The promises of the Lord are pure, like silver refined in a furnace and purified seven times.
• Deuteronomy 31:8 NIV – The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
• Psalm 23:4 NLT – Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.
• 2 Corinthians 2:14 ESV – But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
• Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV – Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

And when the enemy plans these things against you, ensure you have the full armor of God:

Ephesians 6: 10-18 NIV – Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Remember, the Holy Spirit is there to help you be reminded of all God’s truth:

John 14:26 NASB – But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I said to you.

The call is clear, trust in the Lord. Trust in his plan. Trust in his word. Pray about everything, tell it to the Lord. The Holy Spirit is there to help you. Be strong!

V1 – After they talked to the people and the people now understood what God wanted to do, Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh. The message was that God wanted the people to go and worship Him.

We are set free not because being free is the end in itself, we are set free so that we may freely worship Him.

V2 – Pharaoh mocks the Lord and refuses to let the people go.

Our sins and captivities are never willing to let us go. If it were up to the flesh and the enemy, the devil, we would never be free to worship the Lord.

Thank God it’s not up to them but up to the Lord. The flesh and the devil do not have to agree, they are forced to see God’s will unfold in front of them.

Salvation is up to the Lord, He only wants our willingness, faith, trust and obedience.

John 3:16 Living Bible – For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT – God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

V3 – Moses and Aaron say that if they don’t go to the wilderness and worship the Lord, He will kill them with a plague or with the sword.

A question comes up? What happens when people refuse or do not worship the Lord as He has commanded? Why did Moses and Aaron say this?

I think it’s because they understood what happens when people fail to voluntarily (with joyful willingness, not out of compulsion) worship God and glorify Him. At its core, failing to worship is disobedience. The command from God is that we are to worship Him, serve Him and He alone is to be our God.

Luke 4: 8 ESV – And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God,    and him only shall you serve.’”

And so, when we disobey and do not worship Him willingly and joyfully, what happens?  We become these people talked about here:

Romans 1:18-32 NLT – But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

When you refuse to acknowledge and worship God, then He lets you over into your sinful and evil desires, and in the end, you reap what you deserve: death (eternal separation from Him). And out there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Romans 6:23a KJV – For the wages of sin is death…

The portion in Romans 1:18-32 NLT above has shown us how it all happens:

1. You first ignore GOD, yet He has always revealed himself to all people.
2. You refuse to give him thanks and to acknowledge him as your God.
3. You come up with your own ideas of what God is like and start creating idols. (wealth, entertainment, power, gods made of metal/wood/bronze, etc. and so on)
4. You start worshipping the things God created instead of worshipping God.
5. God abandons you to your shameful desires.
6. Your life becomes full of every from of wickedness.
7. You suffer God’s justice.

Acknowledge the Lord and worship Him. Man is bound to worship other things, including self, if He/She does not worship the true God. This happens because when a person refuses to acknowledge God, their mind becomes dark and cannot understand. They walk in darkness, coming up with their own ideas of God.

V33 – This landowner did all the initial work. He bought the land, planted the vineyard, created the press and even set protection for it. He clearly used a lot of his resources and time and is clearly heavily invested into this project. He wants to see it do well.

We understand that Jesus came to reveal God’s kingdom to us and therefore this parable must be related to God’s Kingdom. The landowner who does all this work is God. This verse shows me that God is a worker, He invests heavily and well; He ensures that the vineyard is properly built and planted. He then waits for the fruit from the vineyard.

After doing all this investing work, He gives the vineyard to tenant farmers.

In relation to us individually, God has done the work of salvation. He sent Jesus who died for our sins. Now salvation has been given freely to me. I now must work on it and produce fruit fit for the master.

V34-35 – He sends servants to get the fruit. But the tenant farmers kill the servants greatly harmed the servants.

Now the question is this: Is He wrong in expecting fruit from his vineyard? No, He is not. He deserves the fruit because the vineyard is his possession and He has worked hard for it. Everyone deserves the fruit of their labor.

As tenant farmers who have been given salvation, God directly expects fruit from us. This verse in Ephesians puts it so clearly:

Ephesians 2:10 NIV: For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

(Lord, I am merely a servant, here to do the works you planned long ago for me to do. You deserve the fruit of your labor, Oh God.)

V36 – He sent even more workers to get the harvest but He does not get the harvest, instead, his servants are again harmed. The Lord sends his servants to come and check on his people to see and to harvest the good works but all He finds is sin and death among them.

In the Israelite context when Jesus was giving this parable, He meant that the Israelites and their ancestors had killed the prophets He sent among them. These prophets were sometimes beaten, others tortured and still others killed. The Prophet Jeremiah is one example, He was tortured because of giving God’s message. The message was that the people should return to the Lord. Of course, the harvest that God expected from them is repentance.

Two very important and I would say, “primary fruits” that God expects from us are: repentance from our ways and thoughts, and obedience to his word (the Bible) and all the instructions He gives us by his Holy Spirit.

But a lot of the times, the Lord does not find this harvest of righteousness. All He finds is a people walking in their own way. How unfortunate!

• When He expects a harvest of lives that are full of prayer and fasting, He finds prayerless worldly lives that depend on themselves and not on God.
• When He expects a harvest of study in His word, He finds people who are invested in worldly entertainment… TikTok, Netflix, Instagram etc.
• When the Lord expects a harvest of daily trust in Him, He finds a people engulfed in worry and desperation about tomorrow.
• When He expects a harvest of forgiveness, He finds hearts that are full of bitterness and rage, ready to revenge anytime!
• When He expects a harvest of love, He finds hatred even among believers.
• When He expects a harvest of prayer for the government, He finds government criticizers who do not understand that God puts authorities in place for his purposes.
• When He expects a harvest of Godly children who are taught the Word, He finds children who know more about worldly things rather than God and who He is.
• When He expects a harvest of sexual purity, He finds people who are lustful, fornicators and adulterous.
• When He expects a harvest of love for Him and lives greatly growing in their love for Him, He finds  a love for the world.

Instead of a can of good produce/harvest, He finds a can of worms.

V37-39 – He lastly sent his son and this one they grabbed and killed.

Here, Jesus refers to how the leading priests and Pharisees would kill him. They hated him for how He told the truth about them and therefore would lead to his crucifixion.

In our context, the Bible speaks of crucifying the Lord again.  Here is the passage, very self-explanatory:

Hebrews 6:4-9 Living Bible –  There is no use trying to bring you back to the Lord again if you have once understood the Good News and tasted for yourself the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, and know how good the Word of God is, and felt the mighty powers of the world to come, and then have turned against God. You cannot bring yourself to repent again if you have nailed the Son of God to the cross again by rejecting him, holding him up to mocking and to public shame. When a farmer’s land has had many showers upon it and good crops come up, that land has experienced God’s blessing upon it. But if it keeps on having crops of thistles and thorns, the land is considered no good and is ready for condemnation and burning off. Dear friends, even though I am talking like this I really don’t believe that what I am saying applies to you. I am confident you are producing the good fruit that comes along with your salvation.

V40-43 – What happens to people who produce no fit harvest?

They die a horrible death because they knew what was supposed to be done and did not do it.

Jesus then explains how God has done a remarkable thing in that Jesus, who was rejected by the Pharisees and leading priests has now become the cornerstone. All who accept him are broken and their lives are changed but all who reject him are crushed and they die. What a powerful message!

The striking thing that I see here is that Jesus asked the Pharisees what they thought would happen in this scenario of the tenant farmers. And the Pharisees knew exactly what those evil tenant farmers deserved. Jesus was actually speaking about them and they (the Pharisees) directly proved that they knew what justice meant in this case.

Later, in verse 45, we learn that the reaction of the leading priests and Pharisees after they realized that Jesus was talking about them is that they wanted to arrest him. They were ready to harm him again. Remember, they always wanted to harm him and eventually they did. But that’s the amazing thing! THE STONE THEY REJECTED BECAME THE CORNERSTONE.

So, we see how the leading priests and Pharisees reacted when they were told the truth by Jesus.

Now, let’s bring in a Contrast. This passage has a lot of similarities with the story of David and Bathsheba.

David lusted after Bathsheba and took her in, slept with her and then killed her husband, Uriah. Nathan went in with a story/parable and told him about the rich man taking the lamb of the poor man. David, just like the leading priests and Pharisees in this story, knew what the right judgement was. He said:

2 Samuel 12:5 GNT – David became very angry at the rich man and said, “I swear by the living LORD that the man who did this ought to die!

But then, Prophet Nathan told him that He was the rich man in the story. How did David react when He realized He was the sinner? This is what He did:

2 Samuel 12:13 NIV – Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”

and this is how the Lord immediately responded in the same verse:

Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.

So, dear friend, which you will be when Jesus tells you of your sin? Which you will be when the master comes for the harvest? Will you be the leading priests and pharisees or will you be like David? Will you be an unfaithful tenant or a faithful tenant?

Choose! The Lord is ready to forgive and accept you but you must first be repentant.

V28– What I understand from this verse is that all of us have been called to repentance and to service in God’s kingdom. But we decide how we will personally answer to the instruction/command.

V29 – Some of us do not say that we will obey the Lord and do what He asks of us but later we change our mind and we go ahead and obey Him. So at first, we have no willingness to obey and/or we are not ready to obey but later we change our minds and obey the Lord. At first, our hearts are stubborn but later, we change our minds and obey Him.

V30– Some of us, on the other hand, answer that we will do it, but we don’t. Some of us say that we will obey but we never ever obey. Some of us even say that we will obey just for the sake of it so that the Lord can leave us alone. How unfortunate? Can you lie to the Lord? Nothing is hidden from him.

Psalm 139 NLT: O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say    even before I say it, Lord.

Some of us also maybe have the intention or have always had the intention to obey but we never obey. Some of us always have the intention to repent from our sins but we never make the decision to. Some of us always have the intention to go deeper in our knowledge of Him, go deeper in prayer, in service but we never actually do it.

For how long will you continue this way? For how long? For how long will the Lord be patient with us to obey?

Mark 9:19 NLT: Jesus said to them, “You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? …

V31 – Jesus explains and says the first son obeyed Him. He did not want to at first but He later changed his mind.

What a blessed truth! Even if you had said you will not do it, you still have the chance to obey. The Lord is also merciful to those of us who continue to say we will do it, but we never really obey. He is still patient with us but remember, your time is small so don’t wait, obey now!

2 Peter 3: 9b-10a NIV– He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.

2 Corinthians 6:1-3 NIV: As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. 2 For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.

And so dear friend, join me in crying out with the Psalmist:

Psalm 39:4-8a NLT: Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered— how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath.” We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it. And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you. RESCUE ME FROM MY REBELLION.

V32 – Others are moving to obey him. Don’t be left out! Do not refuse to believe him and repent of your sins. Be reconciled to God.

And for the believer, obey his word now, obey the Holy Spirit.

V23-26 – The authority of Jesus is challenged by the leading priests and elders. Like many times in the Gospels, these Jewish leaders, teachers, elders etc., came to Jesus not really because they wanted the best for Him, their intentions were not good or rightly placed. They were challenging Him because Jesus was challenging their position and teachings, they did not like Him. And they never saw Him for who He is– the son of God and the messiah.

But Jesus, knowing their hearts, was always very wise in dealing with them. In this scenario, instead of answering their question, the Lord answers them with another question. The Lord Jesus asks them about the authority of John the Baptist and realizing that they were cornered, they said “we don’t know.”

I feel that this encounter really revealed the true conditions of their hearts. These leaders, pharisees, priests… had opposed John the Baptist and were now opposing Jesus. They had not believed that John came from God, and now they did not believe that Jesus is the son of God and the Messiah. The worst part is that they did not even want to consider that he might be the messiah. Their hearts were simply closed shut! They had their own agenda to fulfill; they were on a mission to put him down because He was challenging their religion.

You see, previously before John the Baptist and before Jesus, these leaders and teachers of the religion, were the ones followed by people and the people believed their teachings. But they were blind guides because they did not follow what they taught and on other times, taught people things that were not really Godly but mere traditions of men.

Matthew 15:12-15 NIV: Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides.[a] If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.

Matthew 23:1-7 NIV: Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden. “Everything they do is for show. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra-long tassels.  6And they love to sit at the head table at banquets and in the seats of honor in the synagogues. They love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi.’

Mark 7:5-8 NIV – So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?” He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”

But now Jesus had come and the people were following him in many numbers and they were listening to his teaching. Even in the case of John the Baptist, the people believed that He was a prophet of God. So, Jesus was challenging their position in the society and the religion. And they did not like it. For this reason, they themselves did not believe in Jesus, even though they saw and heard all He taught BUT at the same time, they were not willing to let the people believe in Him. They pretended to be gatekeepers of the religion yet in real sense, their religion was corrupted. Instead of listening to God’s message, they were interested in their own misguided teachings and therefore, their attitude when coming before the Lord was wrong.

Matthew 23:13 NLT – What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either.

And so, the question comes, dear friend, are you like these pharisees, leading priests, Sadducees etc.? Are you opposing or rejecting God’s word because of your own selfish interests? Are you coming to Jesus with an attitude of “fighting Him” and are you fighting his Word?

We must always be very careful about our attitude when coming before the Lord. God does not force himself on anyone. If we do not come before Him with an attitude of surrender, how do we expect to hear from Him? How do we expect him to tell us the right way if we already have our own ideas and decisions?? We cannot come before God with an attitude of getting his approval over our own ways and decisions which are not led of Him. If we come with this kind of attitude, what happens when He says that our way is wrong? Will we listen?

Dear friend, let us come before the Lord with the right attitude. We have to come with an attitude of reverence, submission and awe. We have to understand that He is sovereign, the ruler of all things and that His way is best. We have to know that He is good and will not lead us to a path of destruction, He leads us to eternal life.

As such, we must be ready to lay everything before Him. I must lay down my attitudes, my opinions, my decisions and my ways when I come before Him. I must come ready to believe in Him and must come ready to accept and obey what He says.

He is the shepherd.

Psalm 23:1a NASB1995– The Lord is my shepherd

John 10:11 NIV– “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

We are the sheep of his pasture.

Psalm 100:3 AMP – Know and fully recognize with gratitude that the LORD Himself is God; It is He who has made us, not we ourselves [and we are His]. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Psalm 95:7 NIV – for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.

He leads his sheep in the paths of righteousness.

Psalm 23:3 NASB1995 – He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.

Proverbs 4:11 NIV: I instruct you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths.

And therefore, we cry:

Psalm 31:3 NIV – Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me.

Psalm 143:10 NIV – Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

Psalm 25:5 NIV – Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.

*Prayer:* Oh! Help me father. Save me from myself. Save me from having authority over my life. I desire to walk in your ways, to accept what you say. Because you are leading me to life.

V18 – Jesus, being a human being, was hungry and He hoped that the tree would have some figs which He could eat. But there was none and He curses the tree which then withers immediately.

For me as a believer, there is a lot to ponder from these verses. While the believer is not a tree, He or She is a branch on the true vine. And so What fruit am I bearing? Am I a good fruit bearing disciple? This is what Jesus said:

John 15: 1-8 NIV – I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

If we do not remain in Him, then a time will come when we will wither and what is done to branches that wither? — they are burned

I thank you Father that I am in you, the true vine. Help me Lord to truly remain in you. Then I shall bear much fruit for your glory.

V20-22 – The disciples are amazed at how quickly it withers. Jesus says it’s about Faith in God. We can pray for anything and we will receive it if we have Faith. There is nothing impossible for God.

I like the “Barnes Notes on the Bible” explanation of this part of scripture. It says

“He told them that any difficulty could be overcome by faith. To remove a mountain denotes the power of surmounting or removing any difficulty. The phrase was so used by the Jews. There is no doubt that this was “literally” true – that if “they had the faith of miracles,” they could remove the mountain before them – the Mount of Olives – for this was as easy for God to do by them as to heal the sick or raise the dead. But the Saviour rather referred, probably, to the difficulties and trials which they would be called to endure in preaching the gospel.”

And so, dear friend, whatever we ask for in Faith and with no doubt will be given by the Father.

But always remember that we have to be careful against exalting one verse and forgetting the others. For example, we cannot so much focus on “mountains being moved” and ignore what the Lord has said above “I am the true vine – remain in me.” ALL scripture is breathed of God to help us to grow in knowing Him more and more. Follow all the Lord’s commands, do not exclude others! So in this case, the disciple who is asking for a mountain to be moved is also the one who remains in the true vine and is also the one who prays without seizing, is the one who walks humbly with their God, who loves God’s word, who hates sin and does not dwell in it but repents of their sinful actions…. And so on, and so forth.

This means that in no way can I look at verse 22 as a “key” to getting wants and desires which are not godly and are fueled by worldliness and greed. God is not a transactional God where I come with a key and just get anything I want, even things fueled by pride and the flesh. I must revere Him:He is Holy and there is not evil in Him. God wants us to know Him and to love Him, to love our neighbors (all people around us/everyone we are with/everyone we meet) and to walk in obedience to Him.

V1-7 – Jesus sends two of his disciples ahead for an assignment, to get an instrument He will use to enter Jerusalem and because He is God, He already knows what the future will be and He therefore knows that the donkey will be there. He knows that what is needed for him is already there and when anyone was to ask, the disciples only had to say “The Lord needs them.” And that person who asked will let them have the donkey and the colt.

Meaning that the person/owner will or would willingly give the donkey to be used by the Lord.

There are so many things that the Lord needs of us and at times, our willingness to give when we are just given the answer “The Lord needs it” is usually not there. I need to let go when the Lord says He needs my donkey. He needs to use it so that many others may see the light and life that can only be found in Him.

What a privilege it is when the Lord says He needs something of mine for ministry. What a privilege to serve the King of Kings. My heart must willingly give. Whether finances, time, care, prayer for others and for the Kingdom, my heart, my skills and abilities, anything and everything! He needs it and I must willingly give it because it is such a privilege to serve him.

Failing to willingly give it means that I don’t see or really truly understand what a privilege it is to serve Him and to please Him. He owns the cattle on a thousand Hills and everything belongs to Him and therefore He can do anything. When the Lord needs something of us, we must willingly give it because it simply is a very great privilege for Him to want to use the very things He gave us.

He is looking for willingness. A heart that freely gives. Not out of obligation but out of love for Him and a great understanding of who He is.

V8-11 – The theme of willingness continues here. But it’s not just willingness, its joyful rejoicing willingness.

Most of the crowd was delighted to lay down their garments for Him and others cut branches and laid them down.  They also sang great praises to God.

Hallelujah! I want to joyfully and willingly serve the King, laying down my garments for Him.

V12-13 – Jesus knocks over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of the people selling doves and says that the scripture declares that the temple has been turned into a den of thieves.

It is important to note that the Lord was not condemning the selling of the animals required for sacrifice in itself. No, this was a common practice in the temple where people bought the animals needed for sacrifice. But Jesus here implies that there were unfair practices in the selling that were stealing from people. They had turned the temple into a place where they come to maybe charge extreme prices or engage in other unlawful practices just so that they could get more money.

They were coming to negatively profit financially from the Church. They were not coming to serve and worship the Lord. This is a dangerous place where we can easily find ourselves… loving money, power and positions etc.

Guard your heart!

Proverbs 4:23 Living Bible –  Above all else, guard your affections. For they influence everything else in your life.

V14-17 – The blind and the lame were healed by Jesus but the leading priests and the teachers of religious law were resentful about it.

Jesus was doing exactly what needed to be done. Healing the people and setting them free but these people were burning with jealousy. Why would they be jealous? Instead of joyfully receiving him who is able to save their souls and heal them of their diseases, they are angry at Him. This is a clear sign of hard hearts. Their hearts are hardened by sin such that they cannot even realize who is in their midst.

They are even angry that the children are singing praises to God. These people were jealous of God? They were stubborn and unrepentant, stirring up God’s anger against them,

Romans 2:5 NIV -But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

John 12:40 NIV – “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them.”

Oh, that my heart would not be stubborn against He who is able to save me. That I would not be jealous of God’s servants who are used of the Lord to declare his praises. I pray that my heart will be broken before the Lord, ready to hear from him and be corrected by Him. I pray that I will joyfully receive him, the King of Kings. In Jesus Name. Amen

V18-19 – The Lord tells Moses that all those who wanted to kill him had died and so Moses tells Jethro that He wants to go back to Egypt.

The Lord is God and when we entrust him with our lives and when He is guiding us, we will be protected. The ways He uses to protect us from danger are different. In this case here, it is clear that God protects Moses from those who wanted to kill him by keeping him in Midian. While the Lord could have used other methods, He chose to use this. We see this as well in the story of Jesus when He was young:

Matthew 2:13 NIV: When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

And then later:

Matthew 2:19-20 NIV: After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

Sometimes therefore, God can use the method of telling us to move away from somewhere in order to protect and preserve our lives. Sometimes, He can also tell us not to pass through somewhere in order to protect us. All in all, we have to be careful to heed to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. And let us not be stubborn, God knows what is best for us and we therefore must follow Him.

V20-23 – Moses obeys the Lord and He leaves Midian. The Lord also tells Moses that Pharaoh will refuse to let the people go because his heart will be hardened by the Lord.

God is in all the details, even what Moses says. This means that Moses is only a servant, a messenger. He does not have to come up with his own crafty ways of saving the children of Israel because it is God who is now doing it. He only needs to obey and follow what God says.  Remember, Moses had fled Egypt when He was younger because He had killed an Egyptian who was oppressing an Israelite. At the time, this was his own craftiness and while his intentions had been good at that time, He did not have the power to save Israel.

Man does not save man. God saves man from bondage. Man is only a servant, a messenger of God. In all the story of Exodus, we will see that Moses continually receives commands and directions from God concerning what to do. His work will consistently be to hear from God and to convey the Lord’s commands and directions to the people.

Dear friend, in all your serving and ministry, do not ever forget this very important point. It’s the Lord who works in you to fulfill HIS good pleasure. We have to remain humble in our walk with the Lord as servants. Never be puffed up and proud. You are only a servant.

Philippians 2:13 CSB: For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.

And this is what we must always say when we serve:

Luke 17:10 NLT: In the same way, when you obey me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’”

V24-26 – This passage here shows us one of the striking characteristics of God: He is not a respecter of persons, He requires obedience and submission to Him from all people.

In this passage, the Lord confronted Moses and was about to kill him. The reason we can see here is that Moses had not circumcised his son. The command to circumcise the sons  of Israel was given to Abraham,

Genesis 17:9-14 NIV – Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

As we can see here, the covenant was for all males of Israel, even those who were bought as slaves. It was an outward sign of the covenant between God and Abraham’s descendants. And of course, not only the men, this also covered the women because the man is the head of the woman biblically. So by circumcising the son, Zipporah was covered under the covenant even though she was not of Israelite origin, she was a Midianite, Jethro’s daughter.

Moses was about to be cut off by God because He had broken this covenant since his son was not circumcised. God was not going to spare Moses yet He had already been given the charge to go lead the people of Israel out of Egypt.

Dear friend, we have to keep God’s word. He does not respect any person and He shows no favoritism. All who do not honor God will be punished. For us today, our circumcision is not of the flesh, let us circumcise our hearts unto the Lord. Here is God’s word about circumcising our hearts unto the Lord.

• Deuteronomy 30:6 – “Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
• Deuteronomy 10: 12-17 – And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today. CIRCUMCISE YOUR HEARTS, THEREFORE, AND DO NOT BE STIFF-NECKED ANY LONGER. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.
• Romans 2:28-29 – For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.

V27-28 – God had already prepared Aaron for the task. He was going out to meet Moses under God’s direction.  It’s the Lord who does all these things. Moses did not have to convince Aaron since the Lord is the one who had selected Aaron as spokesperson. Aaron’s heart was ready to serve the Lord.

When we are leaders, and have other leaders and servants under us, we have to remember that they are not our servants, they are the Lord’s servants. God is the one who decides the hierarchy of authority so that we can have order while serving Him but the bottom-line is we are all God’s servants, we are accountable to Him.

V29-31 – Moses and Aaron do what the Lord had said. And when the people heard that God was concerned about them, they bowed down and worshipped. The servants of God obeyed the Lord and the people responded to God properly: they worshipped!

I bow down in worship to the Lord when I remember all He has done. He has saved me from bondage and has given me life in Christ Jesus. I now desire to continuously circumcise my heart to the LORD so that I may please Him and walk in his ways, living a life that glorifies Him. Glory be to His Name.

V1-7 – Moses continues to protest. He is still not yet full trusting that God will take of all the details. But the Lord is patient with Moses, even amidst the protests and the Lord continues to build up Moses’s faith and trust in Him.

Remember, it’s not that Moses does not know that this is God. The issue is that his heart has not yet fully trusted in God. But as He continues to talk to and experience God, his faith builds. In different ways from here forward, God reveals himself to Moses and Moses greatly grows in the knowledge of God. One of the ways that God reveals himself is by answering the man’s questions. The Lord does signs in front of Moses and shows Moses a small bit of his power.

The Lord is always patient with man and He teaches and reveals himself to us so that our faith and trust in Him will grow and come to maturity.

V8-9 – The Lord tells Moses to performs these signs to the people of Israel and they would believe. The use of signs is an important way that God reveals himself to man. And Jesus also told this to his Jewish opponents:

John 10:37-38 NIV – Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”

The book of Acts also says this about the ministry of Paul and Barnabas at Iconium:

Acts 14:1-20 NIV – So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders.

From these passages that the signs or wonders are not an end to themselves, they are methods that God sometimes uses to confirm his message. The goal is to have the people believe in Him. Dear friend, remember, seek the Lord and believe in Him, do not seek signs and wonders.

V10-11 – Moses again pleads with God about his inadequacies but God continues to build Moses’ faith in Him by giving him his word. The Lord reminds Moses that He is the creator of all things and that He is the one who decides all things, including speaking ability. And the Lord assures Moses that He will be with Him and He will instruct him in what to say.

To recap, the Lord first told Moses his purposes (He wants to save Israel from Egypt) and then He tells Moses what to do, and He gives Moses signs to performs and lastly, He reassures Moses that He will instruct him in what to say. The Lord covers everything… the only thing that Moses should do now is to obey and go as he has been commanded.

It is the same way with us: the Lord consistently tells us what He wants us to do for us and He guides on what we are to do. The only thing left is to obey Him. But do we? Do we obey?

(Have Mercy on us oh Lord, have mercy. Help us to obey you because you are good and your thoughts toward us are good. You see our weakness and only you are able to help us by your Holy Spirit. Our hearts desire to be with you, Jesus. )

V13-14a – After getting all He really needs to fulfill this assignment, Moses still pleads with the Lord to send anyone else.

Moses’ Faith in God seems unable to overcome his inward looking. He stills sees himself as inadequate yet the Lord has told him that He will be with him. Having God is sufficient but still Moses does not want to go.

And this angered the Lord. Moses’ distrust in God is a sin.

(Teach me oh Lord to trust in you: in your saving power, in your enablement and not to look at my inadequacies because even though I am weak, I am strong in you because you are with me.)

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 TPT: But he answered me, “My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power finds its full expression through your weakness.” So I will celebrate my weaknesses, for when I’m weak I sense more deeply the mighty power of Christ living in me. So I’m not defeated by my weakness, but delighted! For when I feel my weakness and endure mistreatment—when I’m surrounded with troubles on every side and face persecution because of my love for Christ—I am made yet stronger. For my weakness becomes a portal to God’s power.

V14-17 – But the Lord is still merciful to Moses and He still sends Him. Only this time, God appoints another person to help Moses speak. Aaron is appointed by God as spokesperson.

This shows me of God’s mercy. In his anger, the Lord still had mercy on Moses. He still chose him to be the leader of the people of Israel and He still chose him to be the guide to his people. In his anger, the Lord could have easily appointed another person but still, He was merciful to Moses.

And at last, Moses is now set to go.

Psalms 103:8-10 NIV – The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.