Agape Devotions

  TITLE Cleansed by Blood?   TEXT FOR DEVOTIONS   Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar.  2  Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.” Exodus 24: 1-2 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up,  10  and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.  11  And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank. Exodus 24: 9-11 REFLECT We often view God as stand-offish, a God who doesn’t want sinful persons to come near Him. Verses 1 and 2 seem to suggest this. God invited Moses, Aaron, and Aaron’s two sons Nadab and Abihu, and seventy eld...

Read: Exodus 21-23 / Psalm 43 No devotional for today (Sunday)

Title: To fear or not to fear? Read: Exodus 19-20 / Psalm 42 Verses chosen for meditation: Exodus 20:18-20   Exodus 20:18-21   “18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off  19 and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die."  20 Moses said to the people, "Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin."   Reflect The context to these verses is that God had just given Israel the Ten Commandments. After this, the people saw “thunder and the flashes of lightning” and heard “the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking”. So they were afraid and trembled. They assumed that God would come and speak to them. If He was going to do that; they might be destroyed by His glory.  Then, Moses told the...

READ   Exodus 17:8-18:27/Psalm 41  Verse chosen for meditation Exodus 17:15 " And Moses   built an altar and called the name of it, The   Lord   Is My Banner," REFLECT Sometimes God’s promises to us involve a fight. We have to fight to keep our focus on Him, fight to move toward the promise we know God has laid on our hearts. We have a real enemy that would love nothing more than to get us sidetracked and doubt God’s promises. So we fight believing God will do what He says He will do, and we keep fighting until we see that promise come to life. In  Exodus 17:8-15,   the nation of Israel, freed from great oppression in Egypt was traveling to the land God promised them. Yet, Israel was fighting, again.    As the Israelites were fighting in the valley, Moses was on the hill top lifting his hands in prayer for these great fighters.  Every time Moses raised his arms, holding the staff up high, the Israelites would advance. Every tim...

  READ : Exodus 15:22-17:7 / Psalm 40 Verse chosen for meditation: Exodus 17:7 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” REFLECT Today’s reading is filled with demands after demands, made by the people to God. When they could not drink the water because it was bitter, they grumbled (Exodus 15:23-24). When they were hungry, they grumbled, even insinuating that God brought them out of Egypt just to kill them (Exodus 16:2-3). They’d rather die in Egypt beside abundant food, than starve in the wilderness. Moses’ annoyance with the people peaked when they found no water again, and grumbled yet again, this time sounding more entitled (Exodus 17:1-3). In doing so, they questioned God’s character, power and wisdom. Not too long ago, God had displayed his power and love for the people, hearing their cries for freedom and miraculously ...

READ : Exodus 15:1–21; Psalm 39 Verses chosen for meditation: Exodus 15:2-3 2  The  Lord  is my strength and my song,   and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. 3  The  Lord  is a man of war; the  Lord  is his name. REFLECT Exodus 15: 1-18 is a holy song celebrating the victory God won for Israel, at the Red Sea and looking forward to their journey toward the promised land (verses 13-18). It is a song meant to be sung to honour God and exalt His Name. The Lord acted swiftly when the Israelites were in a desperate situation, with oppressors behind them and the sea in front of them. God then parted the Red Sea for His people to escape and thereafter destroyed their oppressors by drowning them. Then the song of deliverance, victory, defense and confidence was lifted to the Lord for His victory over their enemies. The opening verse recorded a strong sta...

Read Exodus 12:31-14:31 / Psalm 38 Verse for meditation: Exodus 14:21 ESV Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. Reflect God was real serious in his plan to get the Israelites out of Egypt, the land of bondage, and bring them to the land of their inheritance. For that reason, he chose deliberately a longer but more secure route, one that would be unlikely for them to run off like clappers back to Egypt at the first sign of trouble. He even made it a point to remind the Israelites of who he is by putting in place the observance of consecration. But for all the awareness of an impasse blocking their path, in the form of an uncrossable expanse of water, and at a critical junction at that, why did God still choose to lead them by that route? As for the Israelites, despite all the effort by God to remind them of who he is, why did they still respond the way they d...