Rabbi’s Reflections – Tuesday, January 5, 2021
Shalom,
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Tue 5-Jan-2021 21st of Tevet, 5781
Ex 2:11-25 2 Sa 24 Ps 99-100 Lk 16 (Gal 6)
I’m writing for Tuesday. Tuesday is the 3rd day of the week. In Hebrew, the days are known by number, so Tuesday is “Yom HaSh’li’shi” or “the third day.” There are 15 verses in the 3rd Aliyah (accent on the middle syllable).
Exodus is such a power packed book of the Torah. The reading starts with Moses taking control (as the leader he is would be so inclined), but making a mess of the power he had been given (he killed the Egyptian), so that he had to flee from Pharaoh. He settles in Midian with Jethro and names his firstborn son Gershom. “Ger” means “living as a stranger,” while “sham” means “over there.”
Then we read that Pharaoh dies and God hears the cry of slavery from the children of Israel, and remembers His promise to our patriarchs. Thus, the stage is set for Moses, the deliverer, to return to Egypt and deliver his people out of slavery, so everyone will live happily ever after. Not so fast. Nothing is ever that simple. In fact, Moses’ task seems impossible. But God is with him.
As always, we have to ask, “How do I apply this in my own life?” The answer, Psalm 105:4 Seek Adonai and His strength, seek His face always. Moses got out in front of God and it set him back 40 years. During those 40 years, Moses learned to seek God’s face always. Only then could God use him to deliver the Israelites out of bondage. God wants us to seek Him first, so He can use us for His purposes.
Week 2
Memory Verse: Hebrews 11:6 Now without faith it is impossible to please God. For the one who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
6 1/4 Monday: Job 38-39
* 7 1/5 Tuesday: Job 40-42
8 1/6 Wednesday: Genesis 11-12
9 1/7 Thursday: Genesis 15
10 1/8 Friday: Genesis 16-17
Question of the Day: Today we read the end of the book of Job. The question of the day is, “What do we really know?”
Answer: Job 42:1 Job answered Adonai and said: 2 “I know You can do all things; no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. Do we really know God can do all things? Job had much, lost it all and more, and yet he did not open his mouth to complain.
Here at the end of the book, Job repents… Job 42:6 “Therefore I despise myself, and repent on dust and ashes.” And God lifts Job up above his friends. Job 42:7 After Adonai had spoken these words to Job, Adonai said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken about Me what is right, like My servant Job has.
Then we read of a real “happily ever after” ending… Job 42:10 So Adonai restored what Job had lost, after he prayed for his friends and Adonai doubled everything that Job had before…. 12a So Adonai blessed Job’s latter days more than at his beginning.
Stay faithful! What does that really mean? It means to keep our eyes on Yeshua and not on our circumstances. We believe the promises of God. Romans 8:31 What then shall we say in view of these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.