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Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Days 33 & 34 (Part 2)

Feb3

Day 34. Reading in Exodus 13 – 15. 

Read the scripture for today. What do you learn about God? Share what you learn with others.

Exodus 13.

Israel is out of Egypt! 

While it is fresh in their minds, the LORD instructs Moses to “consecrate to Me all the firstborn of Israel, man and beast. They are mine.”  Because God had spared these on the night of the tenth plague, they were HIS.  (Did they wonder what this commandment would involve? What would God do with them?)

And when they came into the promised land, they were to continue this practice. Every firstborn male (man and creature) was to be set apart for the LORD. (Donkeys were to be exchanged for lambs.)  God would not “kill” these firstborn boy children (whew). No, the people were to “redeem them” (buy them back) for a later established amount. (See Mary/Joseph doing this for infant Jesus in Luke 2:22-23)  Every time the people consecrated and redeemed their babies, they would remember HOW the LORD brought them out of Egypt. 

Another annual observance was instituted to remind them of that night and that journey. Not only were they to celebrate a Passover feast, they were also to eat only unleavened bread, like what they ate on that night of escape, for seven days. All to remember their deliverance! (Also, to point a later generation to the sinless Lamb of God, sacrificed for their salvation.)

Interestingly, God did not lead His newly freed people directly to the promised land. This would have caused them to travel through the land of the Philistines. They were not ready for war. They might have been scared out of their minds and wanted to return to Egypt.  Instead, the LORD led them into the wilderness and towards the Red Sea. He had a lot of things to teach these ex-slaves first. 

The LORD went before them as the ultimate leader and guide. He appeared as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He was their shade from the heat and a light and warmth in the cool desert darkness. Ever-present beacons of an Almighty and loving, promise-keeping God.

Exodus 14.

The LORD instructed Moses to lead the people in a circle and make their camp near a town with their backs to the Red Sea. It would look like they were trapped between “a rock and a hard place.” God told Moses that He had hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that he would pursue them. “But I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his armies.  Egypt will KNOW that I AM the LORD.”

Meanwhile, the weight of the loss of all the people of Israel dawned on Egypt when they looked at their fields,  construction sites, empty kitchens, and piling laundry. “What have we done that we have let Israel go from serving us!”

Pharaoh had monitored where the mass of ex-slaves was moving. When he learned they were backed up against the Red Sea, a sly smile came to his haggard face.  “Hahaha. They are trapped!”  God made Pharaoh’s heart like granite, and he, with all his horses and chariots and horsemen and army, pursued Israel … and overtook them, encamped by the sea.

The people freaked out! 

“Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us?  Didn’t we say to leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians? We would have been better off serving them than to die in the wilderness.”

Moses tried to calm them with words from the LORD. “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will work for you today. The Egyptians that you see today, you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

Can you imagine their terror, with the sea lapping at their heels and that massive hoard of armed and wicked chariots and soldiers charging fast right at them??? WOW!

Could the Israelites now see the whites of the eyes of the armies of Pharaoh? Could they see his evil grimace and raging eyes as he charged them???

“What are you waiting for, Moses? Lift your staff and stretch it out over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea ON DRY GROUND.”

And as Moses turned to obey, the pillar of cloud rose and moved between Israel and the enemy hoard.  Blinded, they screeched to a halt. And as the night fell, the pillar became fire: a light to Israel but pitch blackness to the army.

All night, an east wind blew, heaping up water to the left and right and making a wide pathway through the sea as dry as desert sand.  And Israel went down that path, through the walls of water and up to the ground on the other side. 

At daybreak, the pillar lifted, and the army of Pharaoh pursued Israel.  As soon as the last Israelite stepped on the other shore, the wheels of chariots began to sink into a mire of mud as the water began to leak. They and the horseman tried to turn back, but in the confusion, horses and men fell and were trampled. Confusion and panic grew.

Moses then stretched out his staff over the sea again.  The walls of water smashed together, covering the mad king with all his hosts. Not one escaped. 

Israel “saw the great power of the LORD used against the Egyptians, and they feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and His servant Moses.”

Exodus 15.

So, Moses wrote a song about the event. He and the people sang the song. Then Moses and Aaron’s sister, the prophetess Miriam (with a tambourine in her hand), led the women out dancing and singing the refrain. Wow. What a sight and sound!

  • I will sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider, He has thrown into the sea!
  • The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.”

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Then reality crashed on the crowd. A three-day journey from the Red Sea used all the freshwater they’d brought. They were thirsty. They came to a water hole, but it was bitter and brackish. (think stagnant)

The people grumbled (a habit they would exhibit ALL their days in the desert). “What shall we drink,” they groaned.

Moses looked to God, and the LORD showed him a dead tree branch.  Moses threw it into the water, and the water … became pure and clean and sweet!! 

As they were filling their water skins, the LORD spoke and made for them a STATUTE and a RULE, testing them. 

“IF you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in His eyes, and give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, THEN I will put none of the diseases (plagues) on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I AM the LORD, your healer.”

Then, surprisingly, the masses of Israel moved to Elim, an oasis with twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. And they camped by the water.

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Tomorrow = next disaster (or test).

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Days 33 & 34 (Part 1)

Feb3

Day 33. Reading in Exodus 10 -1 2. 

Read the scripture for today. What do you learn about God? Share what you learn with others.

Exodus 10.

After the horrendous hail had stopped, Pharaoh changed his mind yet again. 

The LORD said to Moses, “I have hardened Pharaoh’s heart and the heart of his servants.” Say to Pharaoh, “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?  LET MY PEOPLE GO, THAT THEY MAY SERVE ME. If you refuse … I will bring locusts, such as you have never seen, to cover the face of the land. They will eat whatever is left from the hail. They will fill your houses.”

Then Moses turned and left the king’s presence.

Pharaoh’s servants begged him, “Let the men go that they may serve the LORD their God! Do you not yet understand that EGYPT IS RUINED??”

Moses and Aaron were called back in.  “Okay! Go! Serve the LORD your God. But who will go?” 

“We will go with our young and old, our daughters and sons, our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the LORD.”

“I will NEVER let you AND your little ones go! YOU HAVE SOME EVIL PURPOSE IN MIND!!” yelled Pharaoh. “No! Only you and the men will go. That’s what you asked for!” 

And he drove them out of his presence.

And God sent the locusts when Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt. The early East wind brought them. The sky was dark. The land was covered with the winged insects, chomping, chomping.

Quickly, Pharaoh called them back. “Oh, I’ve sinned against the LORD your God. Forgive my sin only this once!  PLEAD WITH THE LORD TO REMOVE THIS DEATH FROM ME!!!”

Moses prayed. The LORD heard. He blew every last one of them into the Red Sea.  And … “The LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart.”

Then, without warning, God told Moses to stretch out his hand toward heaven. A complete, deep darkness descended on Egypt for three days. A darkness that could be “felt.” They could not see each other or their hands in front of their faces. They all were confined to their beds. (Goshen had light!)

“GO! Serve the LORD; your little ones may go with you! Only not your flocks and herds.”

“Sorry,” said Moses. “Everything must go. Not a hoof must remain. We don’t know what we’ll need.”

But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart.

“NO! Go away! I never want to see your face again!“

Exodus 11.

“I have one more plague yet,” said the LORD.  “After that, he will let you go.  He will drive you away completely. Now tell your people that every man and woman shall ask their neighbor for gold and silver jewelry.”

“Here’s what will happen, Moses…

“About midnight, I will go out in the midst of EGYPT, and EVERY FIRSTBORN in the land of Egypt SHALL DIE of Pharaoh, his servants, and his cattle. There will be a great cry throughout the land of Egypt. But not a dog shall growl in Israel.  And all Pharaoh’s servants shall say to you, “GET OUT, YOU AND ALL THE PEOPLE WHO FOLLOW YOU!”

Exodus 12.

Earlier, God had told Moses about the glorious exodus and how it would go down for the Israelites. In fact, the exit from Egypt would signal a new calendar. This event would signal a new year – a new beginning as the “nation” of Israel.  It would be an event that should be remembered forever, told about to all generations to follow. It was to be “Passover.”

Moses had been instructed by God how to prepare the people.

  • They were to select a spotless lamb, watch him for 3 days to make sure he was perfect,
  • Then all of Israel would kill their lamb at one time and roast it whole. 
  • Its blood was to be caught and swiped on the doorposts and top bar of the door of their house. (VERY IMPORTANT TO DO THIS!!  Because when the Angel of the LORD came to kill all the firstborn of man and beast in Egypt … He would see that blood of the lamb and PASSOVER that house.) Everyone inside the “blood-stained” houses would live.
  • They were to have their things packed (including all the jewelry and clothing the Egyptians had given them) and to eat the lamb standing up in their travel clothes and sandals. 
  • They were not to wait for the bread to rise but bake/eat it without leaven.
  • None of them was to go outside until daybreak.

The people of Israel did all the LORD had commanded them through Moses. 

Midnight arrived.

Israel ate in silence. 

Then, they heard that great cry rise and echo through Egypt. Every house wailing for a loved one dead.

.Pharaoh summoned Moses. “GET OUT FROM AMONG MY PEOPLE!  GO!  Serve the LORD. Take your flocks and herds and everyone!  BE GONE!

All the Egyptians were URGENT with the people to send them out of the land in haste. “We shall all be dead!” they cried. 

So, after plundering Egypt, the promised children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-Israel began to move out of Goshen toward the city of Ramses—and then home.  And Moses took the bones of Joseph with them. (13:19)

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There were 600K men, plus women and children, and livestock. A “mixed” multitude of non-Jews (other slaves?) also went with them.

It was 430 years to the very day they came down, that they went out from Egypt.

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 31

Jan31

Day 31. Reading in Exodus 4 – 6. 

I invite you to read the scripture for the day and meditate on it. What stood out to you?

Exodus 4.

From the burning bush, God told Moses that He was sending him back to Pharaoh to bring the children of Israel OUT OF EGYPT.

By now, Moses has twice told the LORD that he is “unable” to do it.  God has assured Moses that He would be with him all the way. God gave Moses His sacred Name by which he could persuade the people and even told him HOW He would rescue them. (Many times, Pharaoh would refuse, but God would plague Egypt until he agreed. )

“But the people won’t believe me,” Moses counters now.

Then, God gave Moses three signs to convince the people.  First, his staff turned into a snake and then back into a staff.  Next, his hand turned leprous, then back to clean. Finally, when Moses poured a little Nile River water onto the ground, it would turn to blood.  WOW!

“Oh, my Lord,” whines Moses, “I am not eloquent. I’m slow of speech and tongue.” (He’s spent the last 40 years with only sheep to talk to.)

God assures Moses that HE is God. He makes mouths (and ears and eyes with their deficiencies).  Moses is not to worry about that, but to “Go! I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”

“Oh, my Lord. Send someone else.”

Okay, that is enough!  God is angry.  “Ok, Moses, but this is the last concession. Your brother is coming to see you. Tell and show him all I’ve revealed.  He will be your spokesman.  I’ll tell you what to say, and you can whisper it in his ear.” 

  • Wow.  Indeed, God has been exasperated with me like this many times as I make excuses not to obey Him.  Oh, the patience and kindness of our God!  Forgive me!  What a wonderful example I have in Jesus when it was time for Him to become human and die for my sins. No hesitation. And God said of Him, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Moses asks permission from his father-in-law to go and is graciously relieved of his shepherding duties.  He packs up his wife and son on a donkey. At a rest stop, God threatens Moses’ life. Why? Because he did NOT follow through with the covenant commandment of circumcision, which he should have done to his son when he was 8 days old.  Does Moses want to be part of God’s family or not?

While Moses lies dying, Zipporah circumcises their son and flaunts the foreskin. “You are a bridegroom of blood to me!” she says.  

God relents, and Zipporah is left alone with the boy until he heals before they return home. Moses leaves on foot to meet Aaron at the Mountain of God. He tells his brother everything God said, and together, the two men go to the elders of the people of Israel in Egypt and do the signs.  The people believe, and there is great rejoicing and worship of the LORD. 

Exodus 5.

Buoyed up by this reaction, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “The LORD, the God of Israel, says ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness‘.”

“Um, no!” answers Pharaoh. “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I don’t know him. I will not let Israel go.”

“Please let us go three days into the wilderness to worship our God, or He may send a pestilence on us.”

“No!  Get back to work!  You have too much idle time on your hands. Now you will have to find the straw for the bricks for yourselves instead of me supplying it.  AND YOUR QUOTA IS THE SAME!”

The elders of Israel go to Moses and complain. “You have made us stink in the eyes of Pharaoh! Things are worse than they were before!!!”

Moses goes to God. “Lord, why have You done evil to this people?  Why did You ever send me?  I have not delivered the people at all!”

Exodus 6.

“NOW, you will see what I will do to Pharaoh,” the LORD says. “For with a strong hand, he will send them out, and with a strong hand, he will DRIVE them out of his land.” (Just you wait and see!)

God speaks to Moses. “I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan. 

  • 1) I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians HOLD AS SLAVES. 
  • 2) I have remembered my covenant. 
  • 3) Say to the people, “I am the LORD, and I will DELIVER you from slavery, I will REDEEM you with an outstretched arm with GREAT ACTS OF JUDGMENT. 
  • 4) I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God.
  • 5) I will bring you into the land I swore to give to your fathers, and give it to you as a possession. I AM THE LORD.”

“Now, Moses, go in, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the people of Israel go out of his land!” 

And so the contest begins. In the end, Israel will be free and wealthy. Egypt will be broken and without an army, a leader, or a son to take his place.

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As the writer of this book, Moses takes a moment to give us his and Aaron’s genealogy.  Jacob’s third son, Levi, had three sons (important regarding the duties of the Tabernacle and Temple worship). They are Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.  Moses and Aaron are descended from the line of Kohath through Amram and his wife, Jochebed.  (Levi lived 137 years, Kohath lived 133 years, and Amram lived 137 years.  At this time, Moses is 80, and Aaron is 83. Their sister Miriam is somewhere between 87-92 (sources differ).

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Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 30

Jan30

Day 30. Reading in Exodus 1 – 3. 

I invite you to read the scripture for the day and meditate on it. What do you learn about God?

Exodus 1.

.And … the eleven sons of Jacob-Israel are named again (Joseph already has been in Egypt). They and all that generation die. And the children of Israel greatly increase, multiply, and grow strong so that the land is FILLED with them. 100 years after, the number of men, women and children had grown to TWO MILLION. They had become a nation, just as God had told Abraham.

Several Pharaohs had reigned since the one who elevated Joseph. The current king was ruthless and evil. He looked at the mass of strong Israelites, and fear gripped his heart. “If” war broke out, these “foreigners” might join the enemy army. So he gradually turned them into slaves with taskmasters to build store cities for him. When that didn’t slow the population growth, he worked them harder in the fields and in making bricks.

Then, this diabolical king (probably Thutmose 1) told the midwives to kill all boys being born to the Israelite women.  They refused and lied to him, so he made it a “national” law that everyone, seeing a Jewish baby boy, was to grab him and throw him into the Nile River to drown or to be food for the crocodiles.

How many were killed, we don’t know, but before we judge this wicked man, think of the hundreds of thousands of abortions our country has allowed (promoted) over the years.

Exodus 2.

During these atrocities, two descendants of Levi (Amram and Jochebed) marry and begin a family. They have a daughter (Miriam), then a son, a beautiful, healthy baby.  The mother keeps him as long as she can, but his cries will soon bring vengeful neighbors to take him to the Nile.  So, she does it herself, except her baby is wrapped up and placed into a watertight basket before going into the river. A gentle push and the baby’s amazing voyage begins. He is carefully watched by his older sister.

The baby floats into the reeds near the pool where Pharaoh’s daughter (and her ladies-in-waiting) are bathing. THEN it starts to cry. The ladies bring her the basket, and immediately, her heart goes out to the beautiful infant. She smiles and perhaps tickles the little one until it stops crying, then she takes it into her arms and cuddles it close. She opens the blankets and discovers that the baby is a boy … an Israelite boy. (He is circumcised.) But she already wants him for her own. 

Right then, Miriam steps up, bowing, and offers a wet nurse to feed the baby. Pharaoh’s daughter is not fooled, but she wants the boy and sees the practicality of having “his mother” feed him.  She promises to pay this “wet nurse” and expects the boy to be brought to her as soon as he is weaned. And so, for three to four years, Amram and Jochebed sing and speak the stories of their God and His promises to the little boy.

“God has chosen them. God is with them. God has promised to rescue them and bring them to their own land. God always keeps His promises.”  A lullaby and alphabet lesson of faith.

The time comes. and Jochebed presents her son to Pharaoh’s daughter. She’s done all she can to instill in the boy his Hebrew heritage. Now, she entrusts him to God. 

Your name is Moses (drawn out) because I drew you out of the water. “And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.” (Acts 7:21)

At forty, Moses was a man of stature, education, and importance. Raised an Egyptian, he nevertheless remembered that “his people” were Israel.  One day, as he watched how they were being treated, he saw a taskmaster mercilessly beating a Hebrew. Fury rose in him, and he struck the Egyptian down dead. Quickly, he buried him in the sand. (not a ‘smart’ move, as the wind would soon uncover the body).  

Moses felt good (if a bit scared) about his actions.  Surely, his people would recognize him as “their savior.”

NOT SO!  The next day, when he tried to break up a fight between two Hebrews, they reminded him of what he’d done to the Egyptian. “Who made you PRINCE and judge over us?”

Ah-oh!

Suddenly, Moses was afraid. Pharaoh would kill him if the stern man learned he’d murdered an Egyptian. So Moses ran.  He ran and ran, all the way across the desert he would one day lead God’s people.  He ran to Midian. (Midian was a descendant of Abraham by his second wife, Keturah.) 

At a well (where it seems all Hebrew men meet their wives), Moses met seven daughters of a priest of Midian.  When the man learned that a handsome, strong Egyptian had helped his daughters, he invited Moses to dinner.  The rest is history. Moses married Zipporah and they had a couple sons.

And he became a shepherd of sheep.  (This began the second 40-year phase of his education.  How do you lead, feed, run after, and care for a bunch of unruly, dumb sheep? Or people.)

Meanwhile, Pharaoh died. The slavery of Israel got tougher.  They groaned and cried out for help.  God heard the groaning and remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (For 400 years they’d serve another nation, then He’d bring them back to the land.)

“God saw the people of Israel, and God knew.”

Exodus 3.

One day, the 80-year old-shepherd Moses, was out with his sheep on the west side of the desert near Horeb (Sinai), the “mountain of God.” He was watching the white wooly backs serenely, when suddenly the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush, that didn’t itself burn. 

“Whoa. What’s going on here?”

“Moses, Moses!”

“What?  Here I am.”

“Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.”

And Moses quickly untied and took off his sandals.

“I AM the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look AT GOD.

“I have SEEN the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have HEARD their cry because of their taskmasters. I KNOW their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and bring them up to that good and broad land, flowing with milk and honey.

“Come,  I will send YOU to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

“WHAT??? I can’t do that!! Who am I to deliver Israel out of Egypt???”

“I will be with you, and this is a sign for you, that I’ve sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God ON THIS VERY MOUNTAIN.”

“Who shall I tell the people sent me? (A bush?)

“I AM WHO I AM. Say this to the people of Israel. The LORD the God of your fathers… has send me. This is His name forever. Go, Moses, gather the elders of Israel and say that the LORD, the God of their fathers has appeared to you and promised to bring them up out of affliction.

Then, go to the king and ask that the people go a three-day journey into the desert to sacrifice to their God. He won’t let you go, so I will strike Egypt with plagues, and then he WILL let you go. And when you ask them, all the Egyptians will give you silver and gold jewelry, and clothing. AND YOU WILL PLUNDER THE EGYPTIANS!

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Tomorrow, we will see Moses’ response.

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Days 26 – 27

Jan27

Days 26 – 27. Reading in Genesis 41 – 42 and 43 – 45.

Sunday and Monday’s studies are posted together on Monday. 

I invite you to read the scripture for the day and meditate on it. What stood out to you?

Genesis 41.

Today’s and tomorrow’s readings are fun, almost like reading a novel. Joseph is clever, his brothers are convicted, and Jacob is first in agony and then in ecstasy. And our promise-keeping God is sovereign over it all.

Two years after Joseph correctly interpreted the dreams of the baker and butler, Pharaoh had a dream. He knew it meant something ominous, but he couldn’t figure it out and neither could all his court soothsayers and wise men. 

A light bulb flashes on in the butler’s mind! “Oh, I remember my offenses today,” he cried, two years late for Joseph but in God’s perfect time. “When I and the baker were in prison, a young Hebrew man perfectly told us the meaning of our dreams.”

“Call the young man here!” ordered Pharaoh.  

Joseph is quickly brought out of prison, bathed, shaved, dressed in new “appropriate” clothes, and brought to the king.  Immediately, Pharaoh says that he’s heard Joseph can interpret dreams.  Of course, like Daniel many years later, Joseph says it is not he, who can interpret them, but God.

Pharaoh tells his repeated dream about the seven fat cows and plump corn ears eaten by the seven skinny cows and thin ears of corn.  Easy-peasy for Joseph (and God). Pharaoh’s fat and plump sevens pictured seven years of unequaled plenty in Egypt. The ravenous, skinny, ugly sevens pictured the following seven years of unequaled famine in the entire area (Egypt and beyond). Since the dream was repeated, it meant that God would shortly do it.

Then, without permission, Joseph, who had managed Potiphar’s estate and the entire prison so well, recommended a way to mitigate the years of famine to Pharaoh. 

“Good idea!” Pharaoh cried. “And who better to do it than YOU.  What did you say your name was?”

So Joseph was given wealth, authority, and honor in Egypt, second only to the Pharaoh.  He was also given an Egyptian name and an Egyptian wife (who bore him Manasseh and Ephraim). And Joseph did what he had suggested. He managed Egypt’s years of plenty wisely, so a great abundance of grain (like the sand of the sea) was stored up for the famine years.  And when those years came, and the people cried out in hunger, Joseph opened the storehouses and sold them the grain. And, when the surrounding peoples also suffered in famine and came to Joseph, he sold grain to THEM. 

And Egypt became “filthy rich.” How proud and pleased Pharaoh must have been with his prodigy. But it was God who orchestrated it all, and His reasons were many.

Genesis 42.

Back in Canaan, the famine hit hard. Jacob-Israel learned grain was for sale in Egypt, so he sent his ten older sons with donkeys and sacks of money to buy grain for them all. Little Bennie (about 33) stayed home with Papa.

In Egypt, Joseph recognized his brothers. As they bowed before him, he remembered his long-ago dreams (oh, wow!) and knew God was in all that had happened. Quickly, he counted only ten men and feared that perhaps they had also gotten rid of his little brother. He would test them.

“SPIES!” he yelled at them through an interpreter.  “You are SPIES, coming to see Egypt’s nakedness!”

“No, my lord,” the ten cried in terror. “We are the sons of one man. We have never been spies!”

“You are SPIES!” Joseph repeated. 

The brothers explain how they were twelve sons born to one man. “One is no more (Joseph), and the youngest is with our father.”

“No, you are SPIES.”  To test the veracity of their story, he tells them they can’t leave Egypt until the youngest brother comes as proof they are innocent. Then, he puts them all into custody for three days. 

Of course, guilt over what they had done to Joseph was still heavy on their consciences twenty years afterward.  “We SAW how Joseph begged us not to kill or sell him, and we didn’t listen. That is why THIS is happening.”  Reuben pipes up, defending himself. “Didn’t I tell you not to sin against the boy???”

They don’t know Joseph overhears them and understands what they’re saying. At one point, he has to turn away and weep. (But he did learn that Reuben had stood up for him. Perhaps that’s why he held back the second oldest brother in prison.)

Joseph keeps Simeon in prison and sends back the nine with their paid-for grain and a warning. “Don’t bother returning for more grain without your young brother.” (He also has his steward put their money sacks back into their grain bags.)

At one point, one of them opens a bag of grain to feed the donkeys on the return trip and discovers the money pouch. YIKES, he yells. They all find the same when they open the other sacks.  “What has God done to us?” they cry. (By now, they know this is a just repayment for their long-ago deeds.)

At home, they recount all that’s happened to their father, Jacob.  They show him their returned money pouches.  and Jacob goes into mourning. 

“You have bereaved me of my children. Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now, you would take BENJAMIN??  All this has come against me. My son shall NOT go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.” 

To be continued…..

 

Day 27 – Genesis 43 – 45

Genesis 43.

Another year has passed. The grain they purchased in Egypt is about gone, and Jacob asks his sons why they delayed. “Go back to Egypt and buy some grain.”

Judah speaks up. “Um, Dad, did you forget what the man said? Unless you send Benjamin with us, we won’t go.”

“Oh, why did you tell him you had another brother?”

“Because he ASKED us if we had one. We didn’t know he’d demand we brought him with us.”

Then Judah (whose idea it was 20+ years earlier to KILL Joseph) steps up and offers his own life in place of Benjamin’s.  He adds a plea for urgency. “If we hadn’t delayed, we could have been there and back two times.”

Jacob-Israel finally relents and, with a heavy heart sends ALL his remaining sons to Egypt, adding some good things from Canaan as a gift. “May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man.”  (Oh, Jacob, if you only knew!)

Joseph saw immediately that his brothers had brought Benjamin. How his heart must have swelled. He ordered a lunch at his home to be prepared.  Of course, the brothers were terrified about the returned money last time, so they approached the steward right away and assured him they’d brought double the money. 

“Nah, your God must have blessed you. I received your money before.” 

They are confused but very glad to see Simeon alive and well again. 

Joseph inquires about their father and is relieved to hear Jacob is alive.  Then he looked at Benjamin – a young teen when he left, and now a man – and his heart swelled.  He has to run to his room where he cries for joy. Afterward, he orders lunch.

After a wash-up the brothers are all seated in Joseph’s dining hall in order of their birth. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun (perhaps a space here for the “missing” Joseph), and Benjamin.  The brothers are shocked. HOW could this Egyptian lord know their birth order???

Joseph sends portions of delicacies from his own table, with five times more to Benjamin.  Was it just for the love of his full brother, or was he testing the others to see how they reacted to the preferential treatment of the youngest?

Genesis 44.

After lunch, Joseph orders all their sacks to be filled with grain, their TWO pouches of money, and, in Benjamin’s sack, Joseph’s own silver chalice.  The following morning, all eleven of Jacob’s sons left Egypt.  They are joyful to get away with all the grain and all the brothers. They are eager to return to their father with both Simeon and Benjamin.

Then, a dust cloud appears behind them. A chariot roars up and slides to a stop. The stern-faced steward gets out and accuses one of them of stealing the prized silver chalice from the Viceroy of Egypt. Immediately, the brother’s joy turns to terror. They deny it, open all their sacks, and proclaim their innocence. In whoever’s sack it’s found, that one will die, and we’ll all become your servants.

“I’ll only arrest the thief,” says the steward, “and all the rest of you will go free.”  

OF COURSE (as planned), the chalice is found in Benjamin’s sack, just where the steward put it. The brothers’ hearts stop. NOT BENJAMIN!!!  They ALL load up the donkeys and return to Egypt. Will this nightmare ever end? 

(Hey, Bros, how do you think your young brother felt being thrown into a pit, then sold to traders, taken as a slave into an Egyptian household, falsely accused, and put into prison for years??)

At Joseph’s palace, the brothers stood before the powerful man. “What is this that you have done?” 

A confession begins to tumble out. “What shall we say to my lord?  What shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants. Behold, we are my lord’s servants, both we and he also in whose hand the chalice was found.”

“No, no, no,” says Joseph. “ONLY the man in whose hand the chalice was found shall be my servant.  You all can return to your father in peace.”

And now Judah shines. The one who said his daughter-in-law was “more righteous than he.”  The one who pledged to his father HIS own life forfeited for Benjamin’s sake.  This broken man (whose descendant would one day step into the punishment for OUR sake.) went to Joseph and pled for mercy for his little brother.

“My lord asked his servants if we had a father or a brother, We said our father was an old man, and we have a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him. We told you how we couldn’t bring the boy because our father would die if he lost this one. His life is bound up in the boy’s life. If he isn’t with us, our father will die. 

But you insisted and we finally convinced our father because I became a pledge of safety for him. I will bear the blame if he does not return. PLEASE, let me remain as servant, and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.”

Genesis 45.

At this change of heart and confession, Joseph can no longer control himself. He sends all his Egyptian staff out. and he wept aloud.

“I AM JOSEPH!” he cried in Hebrew.

They all are stunned to silence, mouths agape.

“Come near me. I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. But don’t be distressed or angry with yourselves. God sent me before you to preserve life.  There are five more years of famine. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. It was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me a father to the Pharaoh, lord over his house, and ruler over all of Egypt.

“Hurry now. Go get my father. Tell him God has made me ruler in Egypt. Come down to me.  Hurry!”

After telling them he’s prepared a place in Goshen for them all to live and reminding them that it’s him (Isn’t he speaking in Hebrew to them?), he grabs Benjamin, hugs him tight, and kisses him.  Then the other brothers too.

Later, Joseph sent their grain with them and wagons filled with provisions for the journey for ALL of Jacob-Israel’s extended family, plus his flocks and herds. He also sent many gifts to his father, new clothes to the brothers, and to Benjamin, he gave 300 silver shekels.

“Don’t quarrel on the way!” he calls after them. (Oh, how he knows his brothers!)

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Jacob-Israel sees the wagons. He counts all eleven of his sons.  Even before they stop, the brothers call out, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!”

Jacob is faint. He gasps.  “What? Joseph, still alive?  OHHHHHH GOD!!! It is enough! Joseph, my son, is still alive. I will go and see him before I die!”

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What a glorious story, but it’s not over yet. The relieved brothers now have to tell their father the truth about Joseph’s disappearance.  They have to confess their wicked sin and deception. How will he respond? 

Stay tuned.

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 24

Jan24

Day 24. Reading in Genesis 35 – 37. 

I invite you to read the scripture for the day and meditate on it. What stood out to you in today’s reading?

 

Genesis 35.

After that huge faux pas by Simeon and Levi in Shechem, Jacob feared for his life.  God – in His kindness – spoke to Jacob and told him to go south to Bethel (House of God), where he first encountered God when he ran away. So Jacob had everyone give him their idols and gold earrings, and he buried them under a tree. Then he made them all cleanse themselves before they journeyed away.  And GOD caused a supernatural terror to fall on all the people and towns they passed as a wall of protection. When they arrived at Bethel, Jacob-Israel built an altar and worshiped God.

  • So, where did all those foreign idols Jacob collected come from? Rachel stole her father’s “household idols,” which caused a curse on her (Genesis 31:32), but these seem like different ones.  Then I remembered that when Simeon & Levi killed all the men of Shechem and plundered the town, they brought away all the wives of the men as their servants (and possible spouses).  These had brought their Canaanite gods along.  
  • Are there things I hold like idols too dear to my heart? Lord, help me to identify and “bury” them away from me. “Cleanse me, O Lord, wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.”

Rachel, pregnant again (Wow!), goes into labor. She has a hard time and dies as the baby boy is born. She breathes out his name with her last breath, Benoni, “Son of my sorrow.”  But Jacob names him Benjamin, “Son of my right hand.” 

  • They bury Rachel along the road near Bethlehem and set up a gravestone. (Remember after Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem how Herod killed all the baby boys, trying to get ride of the “new king.” Matthew 2:18 speaks about “weeping and lamentations… Rachel weeping for her children…”)

Jacob-Israel and all those with him finally make it to Hebron, where he spends just a little time with his father before Isaac dies. Esau returns, and together, they bury Isaac in the tomb where their mother and grandparents are buried.  And so now Jacob inhabits the promised land (and the blessings) of Abraham and Isaac. God has renewed his promises through Israel.

Genesis 36.

This chapter gives the lineage of Isaac and Rebekah’s first son, Esau. He became the nation of Edom and lived in Seif, south and east of the Dead Sea, in the high hill country. It’s interesting that the Amalekites (who will become Israel’s deadly enemies) were Esau’s descendants, and possibly also the Midianites.

Genesis 37.

The next generation begins. Jacob-Israel now has twelve sons. His favorite is the one he considers the “birthright son” because Joseph was the firstborn son of Rachel, whom Jacob considers his first wife. He lavishes attention and gifts on the young man, including one gorgeous coat that signifies Joseph as Jacob’s birthright heir. Of course, this causes a lot of jealousy and bad feelings toward the teenager. 

Also, Joseph has a series of dreams that (I think) God gave to him to keep to himself as a hope for those long days of slavery that were coming to him in Egypt. But the cherished boy openly shares his dreams with his brothers and parents. The dreams show him as chief among them, and the others bowing to him. (You can see how annoying this would be.)

So one day, when Joseph was on an errand for his father – wearing that fabulous coat – his brothers plot to get rid of him. Most of them want to kill him outright, but Rueben and Judah’s conscience (or perhaps concern for their father) keeps them from outright killing Joseph.  Reuben said to put him into a pit to die, but he planned later to rescue him and restore the boy to his father.

While Reuben is away, Judah suggests they sell Joseph to some passing Ishmaelites and get rid of the boy that way. His blood wouldn’t be on their hands, but they’d never see him again. (ho-ho, Judah! don’t you wish)  Plus, they’d get some money. 

This plan pleases the men, and they sell Joseph to the merchants, although he cries and pleads for them not to. “Ahhhhh. Sweet revenge!” they think.   Of course, Rueben is beside himself when he sees Joseph gone. (Maybe as the firstborn he feels some responsibility towards him or his father.)

They devise a cruel, wicked plan to deceive Jacob. This plan will get revenge on THEIR FATHER for his preferential treatment of Joseph. They take that despised coat that shows Joseph is better than them, tear it, smear it with goat’s blood, stomp it in the dirt, and…. present it to their father.  With false concern on their faces, they say, “Is this our brother’s coat?  It looks like a wild animal may have killed him.” 

AAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!  Jacob wails. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  His beloved wife Rachel is gone, and now their beloved, highly-favored, and adored first son is gone. OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHAAAAAA!  He can’t bear it. He wants to die.  He is NOT consoled even when his whole family tries to comfort him.  He weeps and cannot eat. Joseph, his beloved Joseph, is DEAD!

Down in Egypt, the boy is re-sold to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.

 

  • “Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.”  This truth came to mind as I thought about Jacob – that old deceiver – now experiencing MORE deception. And it’s still not over yet.
  • Lord, I know what James says is true in James 1:14-15. We are tempted by our OWN desires, and when desire has conceived, it gives birth to SIN, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.  Thank You, Father, that I know the end of the story, and after Jacob and all his sons experience the just rewards for their deceptions and they confess, your kindness will be revealed. 
  • Psalm 130:3-4. “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with You, there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.”

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Days 19 & 20 — PART TWO

Jan20

Days 19 & 20. Reading in Genesis 25-26. (Posted on Monday)

I accidentally posted Day 19 yesterday, so today will be part TWO of my usually combined weekend posts, Day 20.

 

Genesis 25.

After his wife Sarah died, Abraham took another wife named Keturah. She had six sons. But regardless of these boys and Ishmael, Abraham made it quite clear that it was Isaac, whom Sarah bore, who was the son of his inheritance, receiving not only his own things but all the promises of God for blessing, descendants, land, and ultimately the One who would bless all peoples, the Messiah.

Abraham died at age 175. (This is actually 15 years after Isaac and Rebekah had their twin boys, Esau and Jacob. So they were able to know and learn from their grandfather.)  Isaac and Ishmael buried Abraham in the cave of Machpelah with his wife, Sarah. Ishmael returned to Arabia, and God blessed Isaac, who settled further south to the well of Beer-lahairoi (where God first met the runaway, Hagar).

Backtracking a little, the story of Isaac and Rebekah continues. Like Sarah, Rebekah was barren. Isaac prayed for her, and 20 years later the LORD granted his prayer. She conceived twins, and even pre-birth they seemed to be warring inside her.  SHE prayed to the LORD about it and He told her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”

Eventually, she gave birth. The firstborn was red and hairy, and they named him Esau (meaning red). Second to be born was a boy with his hand clinging to the heel of Esau. They named him Jacob, meaning “grabber.”  (He’s going to grab more than just Esau’s heel!)

Esau was a skillful hunter, a man’s man, and his father Isaac loved him best, especially for the wild venison he brought the old man (now in his 70s) to eat.  Jacob was a quiet guy. He liked home and hearth, and probably looking after the farm animals. He learned to cook quite well.  In fact, his lentil stew was so good he could tempt his twin brother into selling him the birthright with it. 

Esau came in one day, “starving,” saw/smelled the stew Jacob was stirring, and craved it.  Wiley Jacob traded that yummy bowl and a slab of fresh-baked bread for the double portion of their father’s inheritance. WHOA!

  • NOTE: The first-born son always got a double portion. When Isaac died, his possessions would be divided into three parts. The oldest boy would get two parts, the younger, only one. Jacob’s bargain changed that.

Genesis 26

Okay, now comes the dumbest thing Isaac ever does.  He had moved his family back to Gerar in Philistine territory, and he – yes, Isaac, not Abraham – told everyone that beautiful Rebekah was his….SISTER!!  WHAT?  She was not even his HALF sister (second cousins at most). This was a flat-out lie.  Why did he do it?  Same as his father. He feared that other men would want her and KILL HIM to get her.  What a bunch of wimps these Hebrew men were!  Ever heard of fighting for your woman?

One day, Abimelech looked out his window and saw Isaac and Rebekah frolicking. (The Hebrew may suggest an intimate relation.)  He called in Isaac, infuriated.  “She is your WIFE!  How could you say she was your sister? What have you done to us? One of us might have slept with her, and YOU would have brought guilt on us all!!“

Abimelech (maybe the same man who had taken Sarah when Abraham was there) proclaimed to all in his kingdom that “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death!”  I’m thinking that Abimelech is a more honorable man than Isaac (or Abe). 

After that, Isaac and the king’s men had more trouble digging wells and falsely claiming them (like with Abraham)  Finally, the king told him to “Go away from us.” 

So Isaac and his family moved up to Beersheba. And there, the LORD appeared to him, saying, “I am the God of Abraham, your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.”  

Was this the first time God had appeared to him and gave him the Abrahamic blessing?  Isaac built an altar there and worshiped the LORD.

  • God is so good to His children. Even when we blow it and sin, He is gracious to come to us with fresh blessings. Great is His faithfulness!

And then – wonder of wonders – Abimelech came to Isaac, saying, “We’ve seen how God is blessing you. Let’s get along. (And maybe some of that blessing will fall off on us too).  Let’s live together in harmony.”  So they had a big feast… and they all got along happily ever after.

.

When Esau was forty years old (Isaac’s age at marriage), he took two Hittite women to be his wives.  TWO?  “And they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.”

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 18

Jan18

Day 18. Reading in Genesis 19 – 21. 

I invite you to read the scripture for the day and meditate on it. Then, share your thoughts in the comments.

 

Genesis 19.

I wonder if Abraham kept praying for his nephew Lot after plea-bargaining with God for Sodom and then going home.

When the two angels with the Lord at Abraham’s tent went down to Sodom, they found Lot sitting at the gate.  He’d gone from camping “near” Sodom to living “in” the city to now being an important man sitting as a judge “of” the city. 

Lot immediately knew the problem these two handsome angels would face in his wicked, immoral city. He begged them to stay at his house instead of in the town square. (He had to press them hard before they finally agreed.)

After dinner, a loud banging was heard at Lot’s door. The homosexual men of the town “wanted” the two men (angels) who were inside.  They were about to break the door down when Lot went out and offered them his two virgin daughters instead.  In their wicked lust, they refused and began forcing the door. One of the angels blinded the men and pulled Lot inside. BUT STILL, these blind homosexual men struggled to break the door down.

The angels urged Lot, his wife, and two daughters to evacuate the city, saying, “We are about to destroy this place because the outcry against its people has become great before the LORD, and He’s sent us to destroy it.”

At dawn, the family still refused to go, so the angels grabbed the four of them and brought them outside the city. “Escape for your life! Do not look back or stop anywhere in this valley. Escape to the hills unless you are swept away!!”

Lot dared to argue with them, saying he couldn’t reach the hills (too citified or too out of shape?) and begged to go to the next little town. The angels agreed to spare that city, but Lot had to get there quickly.  They ran (waddled?) toward Zoar, but Lot’s wife turned longingly for one last look at her beloved city.  

At that moment, the LORD rained down sulfur and fire from heaven and overthrew the inhabitants of the cities, all the valley, and all that grew on the ground.  And Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt.

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Abraham awoke to a towering plume of black smoke (as from a furnace) billowing up from the valley. 

Whether Abraham ever saw Lot again, we don’t know. His nephew’s life spiraled down him from there. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. He became a drunkard. His daughters became pregnant through incest with him. Their descendants became the Moabites and Ammonites.  All because of his choice to go to the rich, green, luscious Sodom.

  • Oh, Father, keep me attuned to Your will. Keep me from horrible choices in my life. Thank you for the ones in my past that you’ve forgiven. Help me to remember this story.

Genesis 20.

And lest we think Abraham is immune to temptation, we see him and Sarah journeying southward again. He stops in Gerar, the territory of King Abimelech, a Philistine.

“She’s my sister,” Abraham casually says, even though Sarah might already be carrying the embryo of Isaac in her womb!! 

Abimelech took Sarah as Abraham expected. BUT GOD came to him in a dream. “YOU ARE A DEAD MAN if you touch her. She is another man’s wife!”  God kept him from sinning and the king immediately gave Sarah back to Abraham.

“What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you that you did this to us?” the king demanded of Abraham.

“I-I did it because I thought you would kill me because of my wife since there is no fear of God here,” Abraham weaseled. “BESIDES, she IS my sister, well, my half-sister.”

Abimelech gives Abraham a lot of stuff, then says to Sarah, “I’ve given your brother a thousand pieces of silver as a sign of YOUR innocence in the eyes of all with you. Before everyone, YOU are vindicated.”

A good thing!  Some might have thought later that Abimelech was the father of Sarah’s baby.  OH, ABRAHAM, HOW YOU MIGHT HAVE MESSED THINGS UP!!!  Praise God for looking out for His stupid children!

  • Yes, yes. I have done some pretty foolish, thoughtless things, too. Thank You, thank You, Father, for protecting me!  You are so good! And I am so undeserving.

Genesis 21.

At last! At last! “Laughter” is born!! 

On the baby’s eighth day, Abraham officially named him Isaac and circumcised him.  And Sarah said (perhaps even sang), “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have born him a son in his old age.”  Abraham was 100 years old. 

Several years later, at Isaac’s “official” weaning (3 years), Sarah catches Hagar’s son Ishmael LAUGHING at her son. (Ridiculing him)

“Get rid of this slave woman and her son. He will NOT be heir with my son, Isaac,” she demanded of her husband.

Abraham was grieved because he loved Ishmael, too. But God backed Sarah.  And, giving Hagar and the 17-year-old Ishmael food and water, he sent them away.  (What a shock to the former prince, Ishmael.)

God met with Hagar again when they ran out of water. He showed her another well and promised to bless her son into a great nation. Ishmael grew up to be an expert with the bow and arrow. They lived in the wilderness of Paran (Arabia today), and his mom got a wife for him from Egypt. 

(Seventy years later, when Abraham died, Ishmael returned briefly, and the two half-brothers buried their father in a cave near Hebron.  Genesis 25:8-9)

  • And so, from Adam and Eve, through Noah and Shem, and now through Abraham and Isaac, God clears the way and establishes the “seed line” for the promised One who will defeat death and the devil forever.

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 15

Jan15

Day 15. Reading in Job 40 – 42. 

I invite you to read the scripture for the day and write “in the comments” what was meaningful to YOU. We can encourage each other in Him.

Job 40.

.This is a terrifying moment for Job.  He’s been calling to God to answer his questions, to come and hear his case, but now it is God asking the questions. And now, God faces Job directly with severity.

“Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?  He who argues with God, let him answer.“

Can you see the fear in Job’s eyes as he begins to speak? Perhaps he cleared his throat and swallowed hard.  “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer You? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.”

  • Yes, our God loves us and is patient with His children. But sometimes, I just think I NEED to see Him as the Eternal, Almighty God of the Universe, who holds the whisper of my life in His hands. I need to tremble sometimes. 

Then, beginning again as He did in chapter 38, God speaks out of a whirlwind and tells Job to stand up straight and answer.  He asks Job if he thinks he’s like God, “Have you an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like God?”  I can picture Job, his hand still across his mouth, wide-eyed, shaking his head.

Job 41.

God then showcases two magnificent creatures He’s made, the Behemoth and the Leviathan.  They truly ARE wonders that probably (thankfully) don’t exist today. 

The grass-eating Behemoth, with iron-like legs and cedar-like tail, bones like bronze, must be a dinosaur of some kind, maybe a brontosaurus. (You know, the beasts with long, thin necks chomping on treetops and a massive body with a huge muscular tail.)  It could “swallow” the Jordan River with no problem, God says!!  He also states it was the foremost (biggest) of His works. 

Next, God reminds Job of Leviathan, another of His massive creatures, only this one “plays in the sea.”  With the descriptions, you really must consider it a fire-breathing, scaled sea serpent dragon. Tell me what YOU think.

No fisherman or whaler could harpoon this creature. “His back is made from rows of shields, tightly fit together.” “His “sneezings” flash forth light.”  “Out of its mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap forth. Out of his nostrils come forth smoke as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes forth from his mouth.”  WOW!

“Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail, nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin. He counts iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood.”  (Arrows, stones, and clubs are like stubble.)  God says there was none like Leviathan on earth, a creature without fear.

SO GLAD these creatures do not exist now, but God must have had fun making them!

Job 42.

Job is genuinely shaken and put in his place, and he voices his contrition. “I know that YOU can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (You are Sovereign.)  “I have uttered what I did not understand.”

  • Job says, “I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my “eyes” see You; therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.“
  • God has been so patient with me when I’ve cried out (okay, demanded) answers to my questions, but as I review these scenes in Job, I tremble at my gall.  Wow.  HE IS God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth.  How dared I?  I, too, repent and confess my sin.

Job had not sinned in the ways Satan or his “friends” had accused him.  But he HAD sinned in presuming on God, accusing Him of unfairness, and demanding that He come and answer him.  At this realization, Job hated himself and confessed profoundly and honestly.  He had a “broken and contrite heart,” and God will not “despise” these. 

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THEN, GOD TURNS TO Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.  (Ah-oh!)  “My anger burns against you, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as my servant Job has.”

He tells them to take seven bulls and seven rams to Job and offer up a burnt offering (sin offering) for themselves.  “My servant Job will pray for you. I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly.  You have not spoken of Me what was right.” 

They obeyed, Job prayed, and God accepted Job’s prayer.

  • (Father, please keep me from speaking about You wrongly, here in these studies, or anytime in my life.)

Job never discovers WHY he experienced such suffering, pain, loss, and verbal abuse. He never found out what WE know from the first chapters of how Satan was “allowed” to afflict him for a purpose.  He had held steadfast in his faith in God’s character.  

Now, God restored Job’s fortunes – the ones Satan was allowed to strip from him.  The LORD gave Job twice what he had before in possessions.

All his family came to him again and fellowshipped with him. They (NOW) showed him sympathy and comforted him. And – perhaps out of guilt that they had not supported him before – each gave him a piece of money and a gold ring. (Huh!)

God gave Job twice as many sheep, camels, oxen, and donkeys as before.  God blessed Job with his once complaining wife, by giving him SEVEN sons and THREE daughters.  Also, HIGHLY UNUSUAL is the fact that he NAMES his three beautiful daughters – Jemimah, Keziah, and Keren-happuch – and gives them each an inheritance along with their brothers. 

Job lived 140 more years and saw his grandchildren and great-grandchildren for four generations.  Then he died, old and full of days.  Did he EVER imagine all this in those weeks of sorrow and pain?

 

It’s a bit of a picture of our devilish struggles on Earth and then our future home and joy in Heaven. 

  • Lord, thank You once again for this study in the Book of Job. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 14

Jan14

Day 14. Reading in Job 38 – 39. 

I invite you to read the scripture for the day and write “in the comments” what was meaningful to YOU. We can encourage each other in Him.

 

Job 38.

.The LORD answers Job. 

This is both a relief and a fear.  It’s a relief because I’m tired of Job’s pompous friends spouting so-called truths about God and Job when they don’t even know what they are talking about.  I’m not sure they are doing it out of concern for Job, or to make themselves look good.

And it’s a fear because wouldn’t YOU be afraid if God showed up in the middle of a heated conversation/argument you were having with a group of friends?  Even if you had repeatedly asked (demanded?) that God come and answer you, wouldn’t His actual voice scare you to death? Notice that everyone is silent now. 

A mighty whirlwind blows between the men, and Yaweh’s voice speaks. “WHO IS THIS who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?”  Gulp!  “Dress for action like a man,” God says to Job. “I will question YOU, and you make it known to ME.” 

Court is in session, and the prosecutor is questioning the man in the witness chair. But the accused has no voice. He cannot answer God’s questions. 

“Where were YOU when I laid the foundation of the earth?”  

“Did you separate the land from the waters and make borders for them? Did you cause the earth to rotate and establish dawn and darkness? Do you know where I keep the snow, the hail, or the rain?  Can you make lightning or ice?  Can you move the constellations around in the night sky? 

“Do you know who has put intelligence in a man’s mind?”

“Did you teach the lion to hunt?  Or the raven?”

Job 39.

(It’s just a chapter break, but I can imagine a moment or two of silence in the courtroom while Job remains mute. 

Like an attorney, God then presents items to be entered as evidence.  He lists the unique skills and characteristics He has given to various animals; the mountain goat, the wild donkey, the wild ox, the ostrich, the horse, and the hawk. (All are fearfully and wonderfully made and adapted.)

To the Ostrich God has given a tiny brain (she lays her eggs on the open ground, then forgets about them). But He’s given her beautiful feathers and legs swifter than a horse’s (When she rouses herself to flee, she laughs at the horse and rider.)   Who would have thought to create such a creature?

Could Job ever have created the intelligence, strength, and fierce eye-sight of the hawk or eagle, and trained them where to build their nests so their young would be safe? 

  • I can’t imagine being on the stand in any court, let alone where God is the prosecutor AND judge. I would be scared to speak too.  I am SO thankful that the Lord Jesus Christ is my Advocate, my Defense Attorney. He speaks for me. He intercedes and pleads my case. Though I am guilty, He holds out the evidence of His own blood to show my crimes have been paid for.  My sentence has been served. Oh, Hallelujah!