Through the Bible in one year - Day 72

Psalm 72:19

Blessed be his glorious name forever;

may the whole earth be filled with his glory!

Amen and Amen!

Exodus 18:7

And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent.

This is such an ordinary line- they meet after being separated –and certainly unsure of if they would be reunited and they are finally brought back together, and what does our chronicler write? “They asked after each other and their welfare.” This is what we do after a separation we get caught up and sometimes everyone is talking at once – so what better way to describe this reunion? Then we read of the judging of Israel and of Moses’ burden. His father-in-law has heard of God and determined that God is greater than all the other little gods and is ready to worship and make offerings – and with his practiced managerial eye he tells Moses – look you can’t do it alone (as if yesterday’s lesson hadn’t yet sunk in) you need help; and Moses listens to the advice and appoints people to judge issues between people, up until the point where they actually needed Moses to intervene and go to God for an answer.

In Ezra we are reading of the return of the exiles – while above in Exodus these exiles haven’t yet been brought to a place of their own. They still need to learn, listen and leave Egypt behind. At present our Israelites in Exodus are still ready to turn back at the first sign of discomfort, while our returned exiles in Ezra’s time are willing to do anything they can to stay free. I can see that we need to know what freedom is before we are willing to give our all to keep it. Our Egyptian slaves do not remember anything but being in captivity.

What we hear from Paul supports this idea of mine – he says his present suffering will not compare to his anticipated glorious future. Without this knowledge and hope we are quick to fall back to wishing for slavery – where we knew what to expect – we might not have liked it but we understood it. As Paul goes on, he describes the help of the Holy Spirit by whom we receive hope and strength. Here is what he says in verses 24-25: Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

 We need this help in order to hope for what we do not see or in the Israelites’ case – have never seen or even heard of.

 This is what Paul says at the end of this chapter:

If God is for us, who can be against us? (verse 31) And then these wonderful assurances:

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (verse 38-39)

Today’s readings: Psalm 72, Exodus 18, Ezra 8, Romans 8:18-39