What’s great about doing this reading with other people, like in a discipleship cell, is that you can discuss and hear other observations and try out some of your own and have people tell you that you might have overlooked something. For example, I was talking about this stuff with my wife, who told me that the comment I made about the magicians not being able to “create life,” had a problem because they were able to turn their sticks into snakes. I objected because I don’t consider snakes a valid life form, just like I don’t consider cauliflower a valid food unless you smother it in a cheese sauce, whereas I still wouldn’t like snakes even in cheese sauce. Anyway, where was I, oh yeah, she made a good point. Talking this stuff out in a group makes it fun and the Spirit leads you to other insights.
One other thing. This morning I read my German One Year Bible. In the German, the word they use for “fly,” means “biting fly.” That kind of puts a different curve on the curse of flies. Being a city boy, I automatically think of the common house fly, or in Latin, “buzzio obnoxyous.” If it was, in fact, a biting fly, that adds as the Germans would say, a little “music” to that plague.
Exodus 10:1-12:13
Ex. 10:1-20
Note that God does a great job of “coaching” Moses through all of this. He encourages Moses and lets him know what’s going to happen, even up to Pharaoh’s negative reaction. When we read this, it is very “one dimensional.” We don’t feel the emotion or see what was happening. Moses had to have been under tremendous pressure. Imagine walking into the White House or the capital of Tehran and delivering this message. God is being very good to Moses and Aaron in this very pressurized and deadly situation.
Also, this is the second time the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart. That’s 2 out of 8, meaning that Pharaoh is winning in the “who can harden my heart more times” contest.
Egypt is now totally ruined economically. If something like this happened to the USA, it would knock us out of “superpower” standing and the country would be laid waste. What we don’t see, regardless of what country we call home, is that nationally and personally, we owe God a lot more than we think.
Egypt would never return to its former glory or strength, economically or militarily; and, interestingly, in this “superpower” vacuum, Israel would be able to grow, unhindered, as a nation. I guess God knew what He was doing.
Ex. 10:21-29
Obviously it must have been a supernatural darkness if lamps wouldn’t work.
God hardens Pharaoh’s heart (3 out of 9) and Pharaoh, rather than repentant and open, is angry and bitter. This is sort of like getting into a fight and you know you should have stopped but you didn’t and now the other guy has inflicted such damage on you that your pride won’t let you stop even though you know you should.
Ex. 11:1-10
Apparently before Moses left Pharaoh, he warned him of what was to come and, since Pharaoh wouldn’t listen, Moses left angry with his hardness of heart. When Jesus heals the man with the withered hand, the same thing happens. Jesus asks the Pharisees a question and they won’t answer and it says, “Jesus looked around Him in anger, grieved at their hardness of heart.” Interesting parallel.
Ex. 12:1-13
Lots to say here.
First, if you don’t know already, figure out what month this “first month” of their year is on our calendar.
Second, God is laying in place a national/cultural/personal tradition that will prepare them for the coming of the Christ. Talk about long-range planning. Think about the different parts of this preparation that connect to Jesus, salvation, and our redemption.
As disciples, our life and our call to follow Christ into the harvest, to reach out to dying people, begins with our appreciation and love for Him saving us. The Passover is a great picture of all of this.
When I read that they were to eat the meal fully ready to leave, it makes me think of how we, as disciples, are supposed to live on this planet. We are to be ready to work, to help, to share with others, to encourage and make disciples. Down here, we are always in the harvest.
Matthew 20:1-28
Matt. 20:1-16
Unfortunately, I probably would have been one of the guys complaining at the end of the story. So, what was the proper mindset?
First, there is appreciation for even getting hired (saved) to begin with. I find it easy to take my salvation for granted and think that I deserved it. The wonder of Him saving me is something that I should never “get over.”
Second, there is a focus on the harvest. We had a yard with two cherry trees and since it was rainy in Germany, the cherries would get ripe and then you’d have to “mach schnell” to get everything off the trees before the birds ate them or the cherries rotted. They’d rot right before your eyes. Everyone was busy with other things, and I was busy, too, but I remember being out there alone, working as quickly as I could, wishing anyone would help. I think, with an eye on the harvest, we don’t care who comes in the last hour and how much they are paid if we have a heart like our savior, not wanting any to perish.
Matt. 20:17-19
I don’t know if it’s just me, but doesn’t it seem like Jesus is “coaching” His disciples just like God was “coaching” Moses? He’s telling them, again, what is going to happen so that when it happens they remain strong, don’t “freak” too badly, and hold on to their faith.
Matt. 20:20-28
I’m not sure of all that was going on in the head of James and John’s mother. Did she believe Jesus was about to die? Did she think there would be a showdown in Jerusalem, with the boys emerging victorious? We’ll have to ask her.
Anyway, there is a lot of amazing stuff here for us as disciples. Are we willing to drink the cup? Are we willing to die as He died for the sake of saving lost people? Are we willing to be the servants of all? Read 1 Cor. 9:19ff. Let this section sink into you. Verse 28 is worth a million dollars if we could ever internalize it and live it. As disciples of Jesus, we are to do the same thing and live the same way in the harvest.
Psalm 25:1-15
I know I’ve been maimed forever. I just can’t read these psalms of David without my own heart being pulled at because of some of the terrain the Lord has taken me through. And, I believe, I hope, I’m closer and more useful to the Lord as a result of it.
What stands out to me is the crying out, the call to wait on the Lord, the desire to be taught and know the ways of the Lord and then the mention of friendship with the Lord.
Proverbs 6:6-11
Ok, grasshopper, look at the ant. (an old “kung-fu” joke)
For me, two thoughts help this “parable” apply to me.
First, this illustration has to do with anything that requires preparation, not simply getting ready for winter.
This could be anything from training for a career to preparing to meet God. The winter part intensifies the need, that is, “if you don’t do it now, you’ll die later.” I often think this is what made the northern Europeans a very organized and serious people. If you don’t prepare, you die. And thanks to that, we have IKEA!
Second, I qualify as this fool. And don’t be so smug, you do too. We all do at some point, in some area of our lives. And as if the deadening power of our own sin wasn’t bad enough, we have Satan telling us to sit back, relax, don’t sweat, God is in control, “hey, flip over to that channel,” or “hey, go and see what’s on youtube.”
Especially in the western world, our lives become overwhelmed with distraction and drifting, personally and in our churches. As disciples, God gives us purpose and focus in Christ and in the Harvest, and it rounds out our lives with love and family and meaning. We have Jesus as a model, who came to seek and to save that which is lost. Like David says above, we need to cry out and learn His ways and seek His friendship. And then you have Jesus saying that to follow Him you have to lose your life. But then you receive it back again in Him.
What God is asking us, as disciples, to do here, now, on earth, in the middle of this desperate tragedy, requires focus and work and sacrifice. What we get in return is secondary (although great). It is still work. We’re yoked to Jesus, but it is still work. But, love gives you wings.
A quote I like from Oswald Sanders’ Spiritual Leadership: “The heights by great men, reached and kept, were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.”
Great disciples are great leaders/servants, reaching out and making disciples, because they make and take the time now, to get closer to their Lord, instead of getting lulled to sleep by distraction.
If you’re reading along and don’t have a One Year Bible, click on this link Every Day in the Word. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.”
I'm writing these comments to and for those at New Song who are following a One Year Bible and involved in a discipleship cell. We're meeting weekly and discussing the texts, not necessarily my comments. We're growing together, learning to become and make disciples who make disciples. We will all be leading others in this process and training them to do likewise.
The comments I'm writing are in no way exhaustive, but meant to give some leading thoughts on how the text applies to us as disciples and to encourage and stimulate our growth in reading the Bible, with the effect that we will grow as disciples and encourage the growth of others as disciples growing in the word. If you would like a more descriptive commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's keyed to the NIV, so the result is, the commentators are constantly telling you what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never hurts.
I am not endorsing any particular One Year Bible, in fact, no one in our church reads the version I do, die revidierte Lutherbibel 1984.
Anyone reading along with us is welcome to do so and encouraged to take their own notes and make their own observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as I understand it.
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