Thread by @GPrater85015

#GeraldsDevotional
Moses – Water to Wine Part 1

This devotional series started off for me yesterday as a study and reflection of the well-known life of Moses. As I pondered it yesterday, there are obviously many lessons that we can learn about our own spiritual journeys by studying the life of this man. A general theme that

appears repeatedly throughout his life is that of “Water to Wine”, much like the first miracle that Jesus did in John chapter 2. He did this at the wedding of Cana as a sign of who He was and an introduction to His presence. There are a lot of similar themes throughout the life

of Moses and the way God used him.

Today we will begin in the middle of his journey when God told Moses to take Aaron and go before the Pharaoh of Egypt and demand that he let His people go on a short journey to a place in the wilderness to worship Him. This is several

generations after the days of Joseph and his brothers when they prospered under Pharaoh and Egypt prospered after the famine. However this was a new Pharaoh who saw the Israelites as a threat and as a result severely persecuted them. They had cried out to the God of their fathers

and the LORD had heard their cries and remembered His promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3.

This Pharaoh was a puppet of the enemy against God’s people. In spite of his efforts to subdue them and to control their population (a type of eugenics), God had rescued and raised up Moses

as a deliverer. Here, Moses is delivering his first of numerous messages on behalf of God.

It is important to note that these Israelites are several generations removed from Jacob (who God renamed Israel) and his 12 sons. These people have known about God based on what had been

passed down through the generations from their forefathers, but in the natural they had only come to know suffering and oppression under the heavy hand of Egypt. When Moses came to them, God had prepared him to introduce himself as a messenger of the God of their fathers

(Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), the God they had long heard about and prayed to, but had never known personally. God sent Moses prepared with three simple signs to provide evidence to the people that he was indeed speaking for God. The third of those simple signs was that Moses would

take water from the Nile River and pour it on the ground where it would turn into blood on the ground (which is a picture of wine).

Initially when the children of Israel saw the signs, they eagerly believed that God had heard their prayers and began to worship Him. But as we

will see in today’s verses, problems from the Pharaoh quickly distracted them from that worship, causing them to doubt, become discouraged, fearful, and to forget what God had just showed them. Even Moses who had personally seen God as the burning bush struggled at the end of

this chapter to understand why God was allowing these things to happen.

Moses and Aaron Speak to Pharaoh
1 After this presentation to Israel’s leaders, Moses and Aaron went and spoke to Pharaoh. They told him, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Let my people go so

they may hold a festival in my honor in the wilderness.”

2 “Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh. “And who is the Lord? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”

3 But Aaron and Moses persisted. “The God of the Hebrews has met

with us,” they declared. “So let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness so we can offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. If we don’t, he will kill us with a plague or with the sword.”

4 Pharaoh replied, “Moses and Aaron, why are you distracting the people from their

tasks? Get back to work! 5 Look, there are many of your people in the land, and you are stopping them from their work.”

Making Bricks without Straw
6 That same day Pharaoh sent this order to the Egyptian slave drivers and the Israelite foremen: 7 “Do not supply any more straw

for making bricks. Make the people get it themselves! 8 But still require them to make the same number of bricks as before. Don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy. That’s why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifices to our God.’ 9 Load them down with more work. Make

them sweat! That will teach them to listen to lies!”

10 So the slave drivers and foremen went out and told the people: “This is what Pharaoh says: I will not provide any more straw for you. 11 Go and get it yourselves. Find it wherever you can. But you must produce just as many

bricks as before!” 12 So the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt in search of stubble to use as straw.

13 Meanwhile, the Egyptian slave drivers continued to push hard. “Meet your daily quota of bricks, just as you did when we provided you with straw!” they demanded.

14 Then they whipped the Israelite foremen they had put in charge of the work crews. “Why haven’t you met your quotas either yesterday or today?” they demanded.

15 So the Israelite foremen went to Pharaoh and pleaded with him. “Please don’t treat your servants like this,” they

begged. 16 “We are given no straw, but the slave drivers still demand, ‘Make bricks!’ We are being beaten, but it isn’t our fault! Your own people are to blame!”

17 But Pharaoh shouted, “You’re just lazy! Lazy! That’s why you’re saying, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifices to the

Lord.’ 18 Now get back to work! No straw will be given to you, but you must still produce the full quota of bricks.”

19 The Israelite foremen could see that they were in serious trouble when they were told, “You must not reduce the number of bricks you make each day.” 20 As they

left Pharaoh’s court, they confronted Moses and Aaron, who were waiting outside for them. 21 The foremen said to them, “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!”

22 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? 23 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!”

- Exodus 5:1-23

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