February 11, Day 42 – By God’s Will and Word
- Dr. Eric Stricker
- Feb 11
- 3 min read
Starting at Exodus 6:13 we see the family line – going back to Levi – of Moses and Aaron. By God’s will and Word, Moses is to be the deliverer and Aaron is to be his mouthpiece. The Lord wants us to know from whom and by whom He intends to lead His people out of Egypt. Yesterday, we mentioned that Moses was a man of weaknesses – timid about his own leadership – but Moses recognized his own weaknesses. He drew them to God’s attention, and God saw Moses through his inabilities. Sometimes, it’s hard for us to recognize our own faults. However, we can ask God to help us to be discerning about them and to deal with them. In chapter 7, God commands Moses and Aaron to go to Pharaoh and tell him: “let the Israelites go” (verse 2). He also indicates that “Pharaoh will not listen” (verse 4), but God will “lay His hand on Egypt with mighty acts of judgment” (verse 4). Thus, the Exodus plagues begin. It amuses me that Pharaoh’s magicians could do no better than to “copy” a few of the plagues. Duplication of that which already exists is simply plagiarism. Like their mentor, Satan, they were incapable of creating anything new, and they were totally powerless to stop the blood or the frogs. Satan is not a problem-solver, but quite the opposite – the devil is a problem creator – and so were his magicians. They only added to Egypt’s plagues. They merely did what Satan does – just create more trouble. In chapter 8, seven times God emphasizes “I will” to Moses. Seven being the perfect number, God has given Moses seven perfect promises that He cannot break. Moreover, according to God’s “will,” He says that Pharaoh will also act – Pharaoh “will let them go” (verse 1), and he will not be able to prevent or counteract this action. In fact, God says that Pharaoh “will drive them out” – even against his own will (cf., Exodus 14:8-12). This “will” happen by God’s mighty hand, His will, and His promises. When God decrees something, it cannot be thwarted by any creature. God’s will is unstoppable.
Psalm 19:7-14 continues David’s song of worship to God for His creation of a universe that clearly testifies about His majesty and His glory. Creation is visual, but it is also vocal, and although it “uses no words, yet its voice resounds with glory – like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber” - who cannot but help to extoll the beauties of his bride (verse 5). Today’s reading reveals the advantages and benefits available to us in God’s Word – “the law of the LORD is perfect” (verse 7). All too often, our immediate access to this treasure causes us to undervalue it. We fail to remember what our lives would be like without it, and we recall our recent readings from Job – who had no printed Bible. This tragic condition is still true today in many parts of the world where no Bibles exist. How merciful and gracious God has been toward us that we should possess His Word in full! It is a treasure of great worth – “more precious than gold” (verse 10), and we need to remember and thank God for this daily.
In Matthew 26:47-68, we see the betrayal of Jesus by Judas – and of all things – with a kiss. Who does that? At first, the disciples wanted to defend Jesus, and tried to do so with a sword – “cutting off the ear of the high priest’s servant” (verse 51). But this was the hour for which Jesus had come – and the cup from which He alone could drink. Later we read, sadly, that “all the disciples deserted Him and fled” (verse 46). Before the Sanhedrin, Jesus was “falsely accused” (verse 59), illegally “charged” (verse 63), and wrongfully “spat upon, struck, and slapped in the face” (verse 67). Nevertheless, Jesus faithfully endured all this mistreatment and emphasized the value that He placed on God’s Word by stating twice that the Scriptures had to be “fulfilled in this way” (cf., 26:54-56). Nothing – no event in history – could ever be allowed to alter, overrule, or stop God’s prophetic Word. We see this in each of today’s other readings as well: in Exodus, Moses draws to Pharaoh’s attention (and to ours) the importance of God’s Word when he repeats four times the expression – “just as the LORD had said” (cf., Exodus 7:13; 7:22; 8:15; and 8:19). And in Psalm 19, we read that we must never forget the “precepts of the LORD” (verse 8). God's Word is unalterable.
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