GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING! 

Today’s readings are Exodus 16-18

Rabbit Trails

🌿Interesting fact alert! In Exodus 16:15 when the Israelites asked “what is it?” with regards to the name of manna, in Hebrew the transliterated words for “what is it?” are pronounced “Man-hu”. Neat, huh? 

Test it here: https://biblehub.com/interlinear/exodus/16-15.htm

🌿Exodus 16:16 They were told to gather an omer of bread, which translates to about half a gallon. I like to know these things. 

🌿Exodus 16:4-5 There are so many incidents of grace when it comes to the Father. He is truly a God of grace and mercy. I specifically noted the two incidents of grace in these verses. First of all, the Israelites, after all that He had done for them, began grumbling against Him. As a parent, we know that it was with a great deal of Grace that He didn’t smite them then and there! Secondly, he rained down Manna to feed them. By His very hand, He fed these people who had grumbled against Him. 

🌿How tragic that we have people who teach that Grace began in the “New” Testament. In Malachi 3:6, YHWH says “I am YHWH, I do not change.” However, there was a woefully errant teaching that permeated the body of believers centuries ago which teaches that there are actually two “Gods” in the Bible, the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. This theology also teaches that the old God was angry and vengeful and the new God is loving and shows Grace. This teaching stands in direct contradiction to the word of YHWH, the words of our Messiah, and the Bible as a whole. But it is only when we read it for ourselves that we can see the truth. If you’d like to learn more of this, the start to this rabbit trail is the name “Marcion”. Marcionism is good to know about in order to recognize the influence over doctrine today. I just wanted you to know that the whole idea of “Grace began in the New Testament.” is a statement that stems from the continuing influence of Marcion. Moving on…

🌿Exodus 16:19-21 19 And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.” 20 But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. 21 Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.

🌿Exodus 16:27 On the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather but they found none. And YHWH said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?” 

Each time I’ve read these passages I find myself answering out loud, “Centuries, at least.” 

Sidenote: Remember, never accept a single verse from anyone. When someone gives you a verse, go put it back where it came from and read the entire context to make sure it means what you think it means. 

🌿Do you see it? The Father is teaching them to trust in Him. After all that they have been through He is still sensitive to the fact that they are not used to a God who will be faithful to them and so, bit by bit, He is training them to learn to trust in Him. He does the same thing with us, each day. We step out in what faith we have and He, in His compassion and lovingkindness, helps us to grow that faith. 

🌿Do you see yourself in the Israelites? I sure do! We are being told these stories so that we will know and understand our own propensities as people. The Father, in His wisdom and kindness, not only gives us guidelines (commandments) on how to live our lives successfully, but He also gives us examples of what happens when we turn from Him and what happens when we turn TO Him. What a loving Father He is! 

Remember, the Bible is not meant to be used as a microscope to examine others with but as a mirror in which to see ourselves. Each of these stories have direct application in our own lives today. 

🌿Exodus 17:8 – The Amalekites are descendants of Esau. In Deuteronomy 25:17-18 we find out that when they attacked here, they actually attacked the rear of the Israelites group, which is where the weakest members (children, elderly, etc) would have been positioned. The Father despised this action. Even today, those who target after our elderly and our young are deemed the most despicable. These groups represent our most treasured and our most revered. 

🌿Exodus 17:5 Water from the rock – Notice that the father has Moses take elders from Israel with him to witness the miracle YHWH was going to perform. This is another way the tribal structure helped them as these elders could then get the word to every single person beneath them in the structure tree as to what the Father did to bring this miracle about. Also, pay attention to the fact that the Father specifically told Moses to strike the rock to bring forth water. We’ll come back to that information later on in Exodus. 

🌿 Exodus 18:9-11 I loved seeing Jethro come to know the Father! 

“And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians. Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.” Exodus 18:9-11

🌿When Moses goes up to lift up his arms so that the Israelites will win the battle, we see that Aaron and a man named Hur went with him. Who is Hur? He is mentioned again in Exodus 24:14 and is clearly very important. We aren’t given the information on who he is but many believe he was Miriam’s husband. This is speculation and nothing to get hung up on, just an interesting tidbit.

~Soapbox~

OH MY GOODNESS the grumbling of the Israelites! The grumbling always frustrates me to read about – and then I am immediately reminded to look in the mirror and make sure my own attitude is where it should be with regards to awareness and appreciation of all that YHWH has done for us.

However, there is a lot to love in today’s reading! For me, I am enamored with the description of the Manna. How beautiful must that have looked glistening on the ground with the first light of the sun’s rays.

In these precious verses, YHWH is teaching Israel to trust in Him to sustain them.

With this in mind, so many things in my life that I may have looked differently upon begin to look like Manna. So many opportunities to learn to trust in Him more, rely on Him, and have faith that He will provide.

Did you notice the respect and honor given to Moses’s father in law when he arrived?  Did you see how easily Moses followed Jethro’s instruction? He was truly a humble, humble man who had no issue accepting wisdom and advice from someone else. We will see this humility time and again as a pattern among God’s chosen leaders.

It’s SO EXCITING to be here with you all today! 

For the past several days I’ve been keeping an eye on my clock and going out on the back porch with a blanket and a cup of coffee to watch the sunrise. ☀️ These minutes of silence outside, surrounded by our Father’s creation, watching the sun rise on the earth again, have brought me a great deal of needed peace at the start of the day. 

If you are reading this in the wee hours of the morning, I encourage you to grab a blanket and head on out to your own porch. If you are reading this later, perhaps you could catch a sunset 😊 Our Father sure does give us a lot of beauty each day – and how blessed we are when we make time to take it in!

Test everything, hold tight to what is good – and HE is the source of good!

May YHWH bless the reading of His Word!

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Today’s recipe: Steak and Milk Gravy <- Visiting my recipes is a great help to me so thank you! 

Fellowship Members: Click here to visit our Facebook group to discuss today’s readings,  Click here to visit our prayer request thread

Visit the Faith Homepage  • Read my statement of Faith • Print the November Readings • Begin at the beginning with our Genesis notes

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GOOD MORNING SIBLINGS!

Today’s readings are Exodus 13-15

Rabbit Trails

So today, I want to establish (with a visual) that there were a LOT of Israelites leaving Egypt.

🌿Exodus 12:37-38 tells us: “And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds.”

Did you catch that? “…about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children“. So this 600,000 number only included the men. Many men had multiple wives and they all pretty much had a whole passel of kids (remember how fruitful the Bible tells us they were earlier in this report). Some folks estimate there were 2-3 million but that could easily be a highly conservative number. 

In addition to THAT, these verses also tell us that a “mixed multitude” of others also went with them. WOW.

Suffice it to say, that was a LOT of people. This makes the clan structure really come into play when it comes to how each tribe was organized – we will talk over that in a minute.

But today I wanted to share a visual to help us wrap our heads around this. So we know there were 600,000 men, but that is just the beginning as that number represents the smaller number of the Israelite party.  Still, it’s a starting point.

This photo is Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee and it’s max capacity is a little over 100,000.

Picture this times 6…. then double that. 

Then triple that. 

Then quadruple that… you get my point. 

That is a LOT of people!

Something to think about as we read of the exodus taking place!

🌿Can you imagine millions of people being led by one man? Only YHWH can do that! However, there was a tribal structure in place which allowed these groups to be led and made a communication tree possible. Below is my hand drawn representation of this. I’m not an artist but it gets the job done. 

So this is how you could lead that many people. In essence, Moses need only speak to the princes of each tribe and from their, they need only speak to a few, and this action trickled down until every person heard whatever information was being passed down. 

Are you ready for a funny story? Let’s take a wee break from the Bible for me to share this with you. I drew this diagram last year for our Bible study and I thought it was pretty effective so I decided to improve it this year. I asked Ricky if he could draw it up in some fancy software or something to make it look more “official” and he felt that it being hand drawn was a plus and I shouldn’t strive for bells and whistles, but keep the Bible study more authentic instead. He had a point and I agreed with him. So I decided I would just sit down, take some time, and draw it out again but this time do my very neatest work. I knew the hierarchy by memory so I didn’t bother using the first one as a reference. When I was done, I printed out the first one to see how much I had improved it. And I laughed so hard! 

Below are last year’s drawing compared to this year’s drawing. 

Yes, they are almost identical. Oh well, I’m nothing if not consistent and I remain true to myself! Moving on…

🌿This is how the leadership was set up so that there could be order rather than chaos and we can clearly see what a blessing this societal structure would be during the Exodus.

Tribes -> Clans -> Households

So my husband and I along with our children would be an individual family. Back then my husband would have had many more siblings and each of them would be married with a family of their own. We would all then belong to the household of my husband’s parents, who could have many others among their rank under a clan. Those clans would belong to a greater tribe, which in those days would be one of the 12 tribes of Israel, that is, sons of Jacob.

• See Exodus 1:1-5 for the listing of these tribes that had gone to Egypt. 
• Exodus 6:19-25 goes a little deeper into some clans. 
• Exodus 12:1-4 is another small reference to households. 
• Exodus 24:9 tells us that Moses went up with about 70 elders from the tribes of Israel. 
• Elders and Scribes were very important in this structure.

Hope this makes sense and helps the words we are reading become more real to you! 

And now for a gentle but important reminder as we read: 

🌿I want to point out something very important in our Bibles that may help certain chapters make more sense and help you to put them back into context. Chapter numbers, titles, and verse numbers were not part of the original manuscripts. These were added later by translators.

While this may seem obvious, I think we overlook it sometimes and our brain automatically resets the scene so to speak as we move from one chapter to the other. Many times in our reading, a chapter will make more sense if we re-read the ending of the chapter before it and then read it within that context as a fluid story.

Of course, the chapters and verse numbers are *extremely* helpful in being able to look things up and cite verses, so I’m absolutely not knocking those, we just need to know that they can sometimes trip us up mentally and removing them will help the story make sense again.

🌿While I’m talking about things man has added to the Word, I would be remiss if I missed an opportunity to remind you that anything placed in parenthesis within the text is quite possibly added. Translators, denominations, etc, sometimes add things within the text this way to clarify points that they feel were being made or to add in doctrinal assumptions based on the text. It is my strong personal opinion (which you are free to dismiss entirely) that these insertions belong in footnotes, not the text itself, as the reader naturally believes them to be part of the original text and they are therefore misleading. Let’s cast my opinion aside though and see what the Father says about this. 

• You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.  Deuteronomy 4:2
• “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it. Deuteronomy 12:32
• I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, Revelations 22:18

In summary, know that sometimes mentally removing the chapter and verse numbers help a story to make more sense and beware of anything in parenthesis. And spiders. Always beware of spiders. But I digress…

🌿We are going to see, time and time again, YHWH tell His people to do things so that their future generations will know they are a set apart people. He will have them pass down stories, commandments, the celebration of appointed times, etc, so that they may know. We have to remember that our history has to be told and passed down, our standing with YHWH, all that He has done in our lives, it must be told again and again – especially to our children and grandchildren. 

We will see throughout our readings but especially once we get to Kings that it only takes one generation for a people to completely fall away from the Father – but in one generation they can completely return as well. If you’re here, reading this now, you’re a driving force in one of those generations and you could very well be the influence that determines which way your descendants will go. 

Do not let His Grace go unremembered. Do not let the stories of all He has done pass on with you, but rather pass them on to your descendants. Tell of His glory!🙌

🌿BACKTRACKING – Exodus 11:4-5 Regarding the judgement which resulted in the killing of the firstborn. Note that it did not designate that as babies only. It is possible, therefore, that this meant all firstborn. Therefore if you were married to a firstborn son and your father in law lived with you (who was himself a firstborn) and you had a son as well, you could have possibly lost all three in one fell swoop.

🌿Interesting tidbit: Exodus 13:17 When Israel starts out we are immediately told what route they did NOT take – the one that was obvious, well known, and long established. The scripture tells us this was for their own safety and to avoid them being discouraged and tempted to want to turn back. However, I just thought that was an interesting little God wink towards the narrow path we are told to take as followers of The Way.  Matthew 7:13-14

🌿Exodus 13:19 Joseph’s bones went with them. What a beautiful reminder that this is a continuing story, not a new one, just as with the rest of the Bible and even into our lives today!

🌿In Exodus 14 we see that God had the Israelites turn back and position themselves so that they would appear lost and trapped in a particular part of the desert. We see that Pharaoh would be told this and he would then see it as an ideal time to attack and try to reclaim his slaves. How would pharaoh know this? He most likely had scouts and spies following the Israelites and reporting back to him. Recall that he was never told anything different (to our knowledge) from the whole idea of Moses and the Israelites being gone just three days but he clearly distrusted them – and in this case with good reason 

Either way, YHWH is setting the stage for a great show of His power to the Egyptians and Israelites alike.

🌿Did you catch what happened in Exodus 14:20? It’s commonly overlooked. The cloud moved in between the Israelites and Egyptians and all night long it cast the Egyptians into darkness and gave the Israelites light. This gave them a huge head start in crossing the sea. The Hebrew here is the same used during the plague of darkness that we talked about a few days ago.

As we move forward, we will see the government of Israel being set up, laws and rules being put in place, and a nation rising up from that parted sea!

THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE! It is an honor to read through the Word with you!

Test everything, hold tight to what is good – and HE is the source of Good! 

I hope you all have a WONDERFUL day and may YHWH bless the reading of His Word! 🙌

Today’s recipe: Easy, From Scratch, Cream of Chicken Soup <- Visiting my recipes is a great help to me so thank you! 

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Fellowship Members: Click here to visit our Facebook group to discuss today’s readings,  Click here to visit our prayer request thread

Visit the Faith Homepage  • Read my statement of Faith • Print the November Readings • Begin at the beginning with our Genesis notes

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GOOD MORNING!

Today’s Readings are Exodus 10-12.

Rabbit Trails 

🌿Reminder: When Pharaoh asked for forgiveness, how can we know that this wasn’t true repentance? His life showed no change. He was merely using whatever means necessary to escape his current situation. When we repent, we turn from our own wisdom and turn to the wisdom of God. This is reflected in our character, our way of life, and our actions.

🌿The plague of darkness: The light that the Israelites had in their home is not represented by a usual word for light, instead the word is “owr” and it is the same word used for light in Genesis 1:3. It means illumination, enlightenment, or a light that is pleasing to YHWH. Conversely, the word for darkness is the opposite of this “choshek”. It a darkness that is deeper than just an absence of light. You can use the interlinear feature on Biblehub to see some of the other instances this is used in Scripture for a better understanding of the weight of this word.

I cannot stress enough how important this very true story of the Exodus of Israel is in our history as a people. So much so that we are commanded, on multiple occasions in the Word, to commemorate it each year, and we see our living example (Messiah) doing just that in His time here as well. God wants us to know this, to remember it, to teach it to our children, and it is a lesson that continually reveals more wisdom and truth to us throughout our walk.

🌿Egypt was in utter and complete darkness. Thing about that. Complete. Total. Have you ever been in a large cave and turned the lights out? The darkness is smothering. This can be seen as both literal and figurative. But those who followed YHWH had light in their lives and He led them out of the darkness. How much darker our world is today – and He is still leading those who would turn to Him and follow His light.

How do you do that? He is telling us right now, and we are reading it step by step.

🌿Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field. Exodus 9:20-21

The Father freely and generously gives wisdom and instruction to all who would seek it. It is up to us whether or not we heed it. We have the most unprecedented access to the Bible than at any other time in history and we will be held accountable for what we do with that access. 

When I was a kid and scared at night, I’d put the covers over my head. In my childish mind, I felt that would render me invisible. A lot of people avoid reading the Bible with similar reasoning – if willfully avoid reading it, we expect to be able to claim innocence and avoid  judgement for our disobedience to the Father. That’s simply not how this works. 

🌿Pharaoh is losing his esteem – In this time Pharaohs were seen as gods in and of themselves. We see in Exodus 10:7 Pharaoh having his judgement openly questioned by his own servants and check out Exodus 11:3! “Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.” 

That’s a historical turnaround! 

🌿And now for some fun, Read Exodus 11:2, then read Genesis 15:13-14

I want to remind you, whenever someone gives you a verse, take a chapter. NEVER accept a verse taken out of context without going, putting it back where it came from, and reading the entire passage to discern the meaning. In fact, the Bible is made up of over 30,000 verses. In order to truly begin to understand, we must realize that every verse in the Bible is surrounded on all sides by verses that offer context. We can pull out a single verse and claim that as our life verse if we want, but true life is in all 30,000+ verses together. Any single verse has the weight of the remaining 30,000 bearing down upon it. And that is why I’m a WHOLE Bible believer! 

May YHWH bless the reading of His Word! 

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Today’s recipe: Fried Apples <- visiting these links is a GREAT help to me so thank you!

Fellowship Members: Click here to visit our Facebook group to discuss today’s readings,  Click here to visit our prayer request thread

Visit the Faith Homepage  • Read my statement of Faith • Print the November Readings • Begin at the beginning with our Genesis notes

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