Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today! Exodus 14:4b "But I will gain glory for Myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord." (The Lord has just given Moses instructions for His people to turn south, the opposite direction of the Promised Land that lay northward, a very curious and puzzling directive. Because the Lord knew Pharaoh's evil intentions to pursue and recapture the people he still viewed as his slaves, the Lord was setting up a plan whereby He would use Pharaoh's rebellious plans to defeat him and would also show Himself strong on behalf of His people. At this point, the Israelites were still in Egyptian territory and could easily decide they would rather return to Egypt instead of continuing to the destination that the Lord had chosen for them, so He wanted to show them they were safe in His protection and power. To further solidify His special relationship with them, the Lord decided to demonstrate for them what would be a dramatic and extraordinary display of His power that would unequivocally express both His supremacy and sovereignty over the forces that might come against them, both in the present situation as well as in the future. Still today, the Lord turns the plans of our enemies and the forces of darkness back on themselves and shows us His mighty interventions in our lives. He still shows Himself strong on our behalf and carefully plans ahead to intercept and redirect what we don't even know is coming toward us. His purpose is always to show us His glory and for us to know that He is the Lord.) May the Lord richly bless you this day! In Christ's love, Blessings! Sally 513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today! Exodus 14:4a And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them. (God had given Pharaoh opportunity after opportunity to yield to His purposes, and each time the man refused, instead, only growing more determined to resist God's commands. Each time Pharaoh resisted God, he hardened his heart against God. Now the Lord is saying that He will allow Pharaoh to continue in the attitude he keeps choosing. The Lord knows Pharaoh's heart and knows what he intends to do, that he intends to change his mind once again and will pursue God's people who are encamped in a strategically very vulnerable site. At this point, the Lord simply allows Pharaoh to walk out his evil ways without further attempts to convince him to act differently and, in that regard, He has consented to Pharaoh's determination to harden his heart. Pharaoh is a picture of what happens to people who keep building resistance to God to such an intense degree and over such a long period. God has said He will not always contend with and strive with man. At some point in a sustained and unrelenting rebellion, the Lord removes any further challenges to turn to Him and allows the person's opposition and defiance to Him to bring on God's final and just judgment. Pharaoh's choices are a powerful reminder of the free will, the self-will that God has gifted to us. The good news is that our free will also allows us to choose to hear, to see, to yield to the Lord's call to us. We are able to choose to accept His ways.) May the Lord richly bless you this day! In Christ's love, Blessings! Sally 513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today! Exodus 14:3 Pharaoh will think, 'The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.' (God is about to tell Moses His plan and is giving him background information. He knew what Pharaoh was going to do. In their journey from Goshen in Egypt, God had instructed His people to turn back south instead of going north toward their promised destination. Now their encampment had placed them in a vulnerable position in a pass. They were hemmed in by mountains on their right with the sea to their left and front and their enemies at their back. The Lord's purpose, however, was powerfully strategic. Knowing that Pharaoh would change his mind yet again about allowing these Israelite slaves to leave Egypt, He also knew that Pharaoh would misjudge the location of the campsite where the Lord had directed the people. He knew that Pharaoh, thinking the Israelites had become lost, would try to take advantage of what he assumed was their strategically vulnerable location. He knew Pharaoh would think he would be able to overwhelm them with his superior armed forces and compel them to return to his enslavement. Because the Lord leads and directs us, often in ways we ourselves don't even understand, He causes the forces of darkness that seek to entrap and oppress us to suppose our apparent situations make us helpless, lost, and trapped. What may look to the world, what may look even to us, like an unsustainable, indefensible, and even dangerous place from a logical and strategic perspective is, in fact, the very place in which the Lord is most at work. Often, when we feel confused by what we ourselves can see the Lord is doing or is not doing, He is bringing together opposing forces and ideas and situations and people into a convergence that He Himself has orchestrated for our benefit and where He will be able to show Himself strong on our behalf. No matter how hopeless the situation may appear, Pharaoh does not win.) May the Lord richly bless you this day! In Christ's love, Blessings! Sally 513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today! Exodus 14:1-2 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. (Earlier, Pharaoh had given the Israelites permission to gather their families and possessions and go out to the desert to worship their God. In fact, he had commanded Moses to take the people and leave. Rather than the Lord leading Moses and His people in a northeasterly direction which would have taken them straight up through the land of the Philistines against whom they were not ready or equipped to battle, the Lord led their departure from the Goshen in a southern direction. The Israelites' first encampment was due south at Succoth, a name that means tabernacle, a message and reminder for them that the Lord had chosen to dwell with them. Then they continued south until they came near the end of the southern-reaching land mass that separates the two northern-reaching inlet fingers of the Red Sea, at which point they turned northward again to camp at their second campsite at Etham, a name that means a complete fortification that shuts you in. Their current situation seems promising. Though they are in the desert, still in the Egyptian desert, they are finally heading northward again toward the Land of Promise when...suddenly...in an oddly surprising directive, the Lord instructs them to turn back south, away from their promised destination. Commentators indicate, though some of these sites cannot be located with certainty today, they likely describe a place where the sea is to the people's east and further south, where a closer mountainous wall is to their west, and where an open vulnerability to their former oppressors lies to their north, the direction from which God's people had just come. The lesson for us in these name places of encampment is that the Lord leads us today on our life journey out of our Goshen district of Egypt and takes us to a place where He tabernacles us in shelter, where He places a fortification around us that shuts us in, and finally, that He Himself may place us in situations that make us vulnerable to the forces that oppress us, but which are only the staging point from which He is about to show Himself strong on our behalf because the crossing of the Red Sea and our deliverance though unknown yet to us at this point, or to the Israelites then, is at hand.) May the Lord richly bless you this day! In Christ's love, Blessings! Sally 513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today! Exodus 13:21 By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud (The Lord has delivered His people from Egypt, and He still delivers us today. Now He shows them that He doesn't just leave them to fend for themselves and to find their own way. He shows them His Presence remains with them. Just as clouds are easily visible in the day, easily visible as they shadow our way, the Lord leads us with the cloud of His Presence and provision.) to guide them on their way (The covering of cloud in the day not only guided the people, but it also protected them from the heat of the desert. The Lord still shields us with His covering. When the clouds in our lives bring hardship and discomfort, the Lord reminds us He is mightily present in those clouds, and those clouds, the hardships we face, remind us the very Presence of the Lord is in our midst to lead us through those difficult places.. The clouds are the signposts that point is straight to God's presence in our life.) and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, (The pillar of fire gave God's people light in the darkness. In the darkness of our soul, in the night of our hardship, God is still present, still leading us, still with us. The Lord is present in the flames of hardship in our life. Through the night He makes Himself seen through the very fire by which our life would feel consumed. The fire of His Presence brings light even in the darkness.) so that they could travel by day or night. (Whatever the time in our life, wherever we are, nothing prevents Him from being by our side. Nothing can keep His Presence from us as He provides for our every need.) May the Lord richly bless you this day! In Christ's love, Blessings! Sally 513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today! Exodus 13:21a By day the Lord went ahead of them (As the Lord led His people out of bondage, He shows us a picture of His leading us today. Sometimes the Lord leads us to and through the desert so we will be forced to call out to Him and depend on Him, so that we won't stay in or return to the bondage of slavery that has become so familiar to us. Such circumstances, in the Lord's Hand, become opportunities to trust in Him. He will lead us even when all the normal surroundings are harsh and unyielding and seem overwhelming. Even when we are in the desert in our life, even when the way is unclear to us, the Lord knows the way. He goes before us to make a way for us, to smooth the way for us because He knows the way that He knows we should go, the way that is best for us.) May the Lord richly bless you this day! In Christ's love, Blessings! Sally 513 254 3874

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