Episodes

  • October 2nd - Exodus 16:19-20

    October 2nd - Exodus 16:19-20
    Oct 2 2024
    Exodus 16:19-20 Then Moses told them, “Do not keep any of it until morning.” But some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. Moses was very angry with them. The rule couldn’t have been simpler. The bread or manna that God gave to his people every morning would sustain them for the day ahead, but it couldn’t be kept overnight. Formed by the secretion of insects, if it was left it would soon become mouldy and inedible. All the people needed to do was to obey this very simple rule and all would be well. But people will be people, and some decided that it was a silly rule that didn’t apply to them and that they would try to hang on to the food. Moses was understandably angry with them. Why is it that human beings find it so hard to obey? The story of humanity from the Garden of Eden onwards is one of persistent disobedience. This is tragic because all the blessings of this life are on offer to those who will obey, and disobedience invariably leads to one form of disaster or another. Jesus spoke much about obedience and made it clear that a relationship with him absolutely depended upon it. In saying that, he pointed out that his relationship with his own heavenly Father was also based upon obedience. There is an old song that sums this up very powerfully: “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way / to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” It’s so simple and yet we all struggle to live this way completely. The commandment that Jesus gave to his disciples was to love one another, just as he had loved them (John 13:34-35). This is still the fundamental rule that we are commanded to obey. Loving other people is often tough and costly. When we reach out in love it is sometimes thrown back in our faces but, whatever the circumstances, the command is always to love. Jesus knew the high price of love better than anyone, but obedience to this command is always the best possible way to live. Question Do you struggle to obey God’s commands? If so, in what ways? Prayer Lord God, I thank you that you are so forgiving. Teach me afresh the blessing of obedience. Amen
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    3 mins
  • October 1st - Exodus 16:17-18

    October 1st - Exodus 16:17-18
    Oct 1 2024
    Exodus 16:17-18 So the people of Israel did as they were told. Some gathered a lot, some only a little. But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough. God’s miraculous provision of food for the people of Israel throughout their 40 years in the wilderness is breathtaking. I particularly love these verses because of the wonderful detail. Although the families had very different needs, everyone had just enough. Enough is a precious word. Wouldn’t it be great to live in a world where everyone was content with just enough? Sadly, although there is plenty of food for everyone, there are millions of people who go to bed hungry each night. In the UK approximately 9.5 million tonnes of food are wasted every year, which is horrifying when you consider that there are 8.4 million people here living in food poverty. It is estimated that around 9 million people in the world die of starvation every year. It is a terrible fact that a child dies of hunger every ten seconds. But this is completely unnecessary in the modern world. We have the means of producing the right quantity of food and transporting it to the places where it is needed. What is lacking is the political will to make it happen. No lover of God, the creator of the world, could possibly live comfortably with these sad facts. In the name of our loving God, we have to respond. By ourselves we cannot change the world, but we can control our own lives - and we can respond by being content with having enough. Always straining for more of everything isn’t good for us, our families, our society or our world. Question Are you content with having enough? Prayer Lord God, thank you for the way in which you perfectly provide for my needs. Help me to enjoy what you have given me and not to be forever straining to acquire more. Amen
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    3 mins
  • September 30th - Exodus 16:11–12

    September 30th - Exodus 16:11–12
    Sep 30 2024
    Exodus 16:11–12 Then the Lord said to Moses: “I have heard the Israelites’ complaints. Now tell them, ‘In the evening you will have meat to eat, and in the morning you will have all the bread you want. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’” We cannot be sure how many Israelites left Egypt, but it was certainly many thousands. Feeding such a group of people would have been a massive logistical exercise in any location, but to do so in a desert would seem an impossible task. But God had an answer and, miraculously, throughout their 40 years of wilderness wanderings, the people were fed. In the evening, they fed on quails, which are migratory birds belonging to the partridge family. On their long flights quails would often become exhausted in the evening and large flocks of them would land on the desert floor and be easy to catch. In the morning the people were supplied with bread which was called manna, a word that literally means “What’s that?” because that’s what the people said when they first saw it. It was a drop-like substance formed from the excretion of an insect living on the trees and shrubs of the region, especially the tamarisk tree. In these amazing ways the people were fed. One of the recurrent themes of the Bible is that God provides. Abraham made this discovery when he was about to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. God provided a ram for the sacrifice that Abraham needed to make and Abraham named the place “Jehovah Jireh”, which means “The Lord will provide” (Genesis 22:14). Through the twists and turns of the history of God’s people in the Bible, he continued to provide for them. The apostle expressed exactly this same confidence in God when he wrote: “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). Our needs are totally different from those of the wandering Israelites, but we serve the same God and we can be confident that, as we place our trust in him, he will give us what we need day by day. Question In what ways have you seen God provide for your needs? Prayer Loving God, I thank you that your name is still Jehovah Jireh. I praise you that you have provided for me in the past and always will. Amen
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    3 mins
  • September 29th - Exodus 15:23–24

    September 29th - Exodus 15:23–24
    Sep 29 2024
    Exodus 15:23–24 When they came to the oasis of Marah, the water was too bitter to drink. So they called the place Marah (which means “bitter”). Then the people complained and turned against Moses. “What are we going to drink?” they demanded. Pressure. Every leader knows what it is to face discontented people. I hasten to add that I haven’t faced a huge number, but then I’ve never taken tens of thousands of people on a walk through a desert! It’s easy to understand why they were complaining. Life in a desert is hard enough work even when there is a good supply of water, so arriving at an oasis and finding its water was too bitter to drink must have been a shattering experience for everyone. Moses could have apologised or tried to put a positive gloss on the experience by saying that everything had gone all right until now, or he could have joined the people in complaining. The choice he made was a good one. He prayed (v25). When a crisis breaks, it is very easy to get sucked into the whirlpool of confusion that it creates. We are tempted to examine the situation in ever greater detail, pulling in all the experts to explore solutions. Those are not bad things to do, but they shouldn’t be the priority. Moses got it right and prayed. In doing so, God directed him to do something that he would never have thought of. He simply needed to throw a piece of wood into the water, and it became sweet. There at Marah God gave the people a standard to test their faithfulness to him. He promised them that if they obeyed his commands then he would ensure that they didn’t suffer the same fate which he sent to the Egyptians. He promised that he would be their healer. We all face crises. They are often unexpected and always unwelcome. This means that we need to know how to face them, and here Moses learned that the best way was to bring them to God. As we lift up our dilemmas to God, we need to be ready to do whatever he tells us to do, even if it is bizarrely different from anything that we have done before. Question How good are you at handling crises, and how do you think you could improve? Prayer Loving Father, thank you that you are with me whatever challenge I have to face. Amen
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    3 mins
  • September 28th - Exodus 15:2

    September 28th - Exodus 15:2
    Sep 28 2024
    Exodus 15:2 The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. This is my God, and I will praise him— my father’s God, and I will exalt him! This is part of a wonderful song that Moses sang after the people of Israel had crossed the Red Sea. After 400 years they had finally left Egypt; 400 years is a very long time, and the people could easily have stayed there for ever. But there was a deep longing to be free from the persecution and slavery that they had experienced in Egypt. Moses’ song of victory beautifully expressed a national sigh of relief that the suffering was now at an end. At last they were free. The people’s exodus from Egypt was a defining moment in the nation’s story because it told them so much about their God. They learned that God is, by his very nature, a God who loves to set people free. He’s a God of salvation. It’s not surprising that throughout the Bible there are frequent references back to the crossing of the Red Sea. If God was able to overcome an obstacle as great as this, then surely nothing could stand in his way. There’s great encouragement in this for all of us. Whether we are looking at global problems, national difficulties or the situations that we are facing in our own lives, we need to look at them through the lens of God’s salvation. He is the God who sets people free and looks to us to work with him to bring his salvation to the world today. We will often be daunted by the challenges that we face but, like Moses, we need to keep our eyes fixed on the Lord who remains our strength and our song. Question In what ways have you discovered God to be your strength and your song? Prayer Lord God, I worship you because you are the God of the Exodus. Thank you that you are constantly setting people free in our world today. Amen
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    3 mins
  • September 27th - Exodus 14:13–14

    September 27th - Exodus 14:13–14
    Sep 27 2024
    Exodus 14:13–14 Moses told the people: “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” This was a crunch moment in the history of the people of Israel. After the long succession of plagues, they were finally heading out of Egypt and it is said that they did so with fists raised in defiance. Surely Pharoah would at last be glad to see them go! But no, he changed his mind yet again and sent out his army to stop them. It must have been a truly terrifying moment. We are told that Pharaoh sent 600 of his best chariots after the people, which must have been an incredibly intimidating sight for them. The people immediately panicked and lashed out at Moses, blaming him for bringing them out into the desert to die. They argued that it would have been much better to have continued as slaves in Egypt than to be corpses in the wilderness. It's never easy for leaders when people panic. Moses must surely have felt more than a little concerned that the mighty Egyptian army was bearing down on them. But just look at the calm and wise way in which he addressed the people. He urged them to look to the Lord rather than to the terrifying threat of the Egyptians. He reminded the Israelites that they were not alone and that God would give them the victory, so they should remain calm. We face continual threats in our own day. In many places churches are small and struggling. Often they are facing huge financial challenges. Many people are finding it hard to navigate their way through the moral challenges which our society poses. In many countries Christians are a small and persecuted minority. And everyone is aware of the enormous challenges to our world’s way of life from climate change, international terrorism and regimes that have no regard for human rights. The challenges are many and we need to pray for Christian leaders to be just like Moses – calm and confident in God. Question What do you think we need to learn from Moses’ example? Prayer Lord God, thank you for our leaders. Help them to live so close to you that they will always be calm and confident in their leadership. Amen
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    3 mins
  • September 26th - Exodus 4:21

    September 26th - Exodus 4:21
    Sep 26 2024
    Exodus 4:21 And the Lord told Moses: “When you arrive back in Egypt, go to Pharaoh and perform all the miracles I have empowered you to do. But I will harden his heart so he will refuse to let the people go.” God sometimes asks people to do extraordinarily difficult jobs. But this must be one of the toughest. As we know, Moses was feeling very inadequate and ill-equipped for the task. He was now told that when he went to plead with Pharoah to let the people of Israel leave Egypt, he would fail. Time and again, Moses would go to Pharaoh and beg him to release the enslaved people, and repeatedly Pharaoh would say no. God sent one plague after another and even though, at times, Pharaoh seemed to be weakening, he continually refused to let the people go. Even after the tenth plague, in which the firstborn sons and livestock were killed throughout Egypt, Pharaoh withdrew his permission to the people of Israel to leave the land. What amazes me about this period in the history of the people of Israel is Moses’ persistence. To have endured the ten plagues and all the terrible implications of them must have been incredibly tough. It would have been entirely understandable if Moses had given up after the first five. But he stayed true to his mission and continued to go to Pharoah and plead the cause of his people. This dogged persistence is a quality that we see in many people in the Bible and notably the prophets, some of whom were specifically told that their words would be totally rejected by the people. We all want to be effective in what we do for the Lord, and it can be desperately hard when everything seems to be going wrong. It is hard to keep going in the face of discouragement and failure. But often God calls us, like Moses, simply to be faithful. To hang in there through the times of apparent defeat and trust God. In doing so Moses was able to lead the people out of Egypt after 400 years in the land. Question In what situation is God asking you to be doggedly persistent at the moment? Prayer Lord God, when you ask me to do something that is difficult, give me also the resolve and strength to be faithful. Amen
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    3 mins
  • September 25th - Exodus 4:16

    September 25th - Exodus 4:16
    Sep 25 2024
    Exodus 4:16 “Aaron will be your spokesman to the people. He will be your mouthpiece, and you will stand in the place of God for him, telling him what to say.” Moses felt sure that his speech difficulties disqualified him from serving God. How could someone who was tongue-tied possibly lead the people of Israel and negotiate with Pharaoh? The answer was simple. His brother Aaron could fulfil that part of the role, and Moses could be the person who kept close to God and listened to his voice. In an ideal world, Moses would have been a perfect communicator and would have been able to do to the job himself, but in the real world he needed help. We don’t live in an ideal world! This means that we need to be continually light on our feet and ready to adapt to new circumstances. The pandemic forced us to change and adapt in all sorts of different ways. In our churches, we had to look at everything we do with new eyes. Meeting together online had all sorts of downsides, but it had many blessings too. It was wonderful to meet so easily with people from all over the world and to be able to offer online services to many people who weren’t used to attending church. God’s plans were not defeated by Moses’ speech difficulties and when he looks at us and our limited abilities, he won’t be held back by our inadequacies either. The image of the body of Christ makes it clear that no one has all the gifts. You and I have some gifts but without our brothers and sisters we will never be able to do God’s work. Throughout Moses’ crucial ministry he needed to rely on many other people. He needed to be humble enough to welcome the wisdom, support and voices of others – as do we. Question In what way have other people’s gifts been a blessing to you? Prayer Lord God, thank you for the wonderful gifts that you have given to the people in my life. Help me to value them and encourage them. Amen
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    3 mins