moses

Enough with the ‘Girl, you are enough’

Posted on October 10, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

“Girl, you are enough.”
“Girl, you are beautiful.”
“Girl, you’re a princess.”
“Girl, you’re fine just the way you are.”

I suppose it was inevitable. The Jesus is my boyfriend trend naturally morphs into the “I am a beautiful princess of God and I’m enough” trend. Browse Pinterest on the ‘Christian’ side of things and you’ll see plenty of soft-filtered flowery photos with mottos declaring these kind of statements.

Clipboard — Lower right by **Madison K. Smith**

Now, it’s true that we are daughters of the King. Galatians 3:26, John 1:12 declare we are children of God. And taking it a step further, God is King. And further, that children of a King are Princes and Princesses. All true, as far as it goes.

But wait a minute, if we literally take the metaphor stretched that far, wouldn’t men as Princes compete with THE Prince!? Yes. That’s why you almost always only see women being called Princesses and not male Christians as Princes.

Doing so manipulates women in an area where many are emotionally weak and needy, which is sad.

I am reminded of a scene in Exodus. Moses had been dwelling in the wilderness of Midian for 40 years when God called Moses to his ordained task, leading the Hebrews out of Egypt. Moses had just been instructed to remove his shoes at the Burning Bush because he was standing on holy ground. He is having a conversation with God. God told Moses he must speak to Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go.

Moses asked couple of questions which could be called legitimate. But as chapter 3 rolls into chapter 4 he crossed a line from earnest questioning to not-so-thinly disguised objections. By the time we read the conversation in chapter 4 verse 10, Moses has argued he is inadequate to the task. He is supposed to speak for God to Pharaoh but is ‘slow of speech,’ he complained.

Then Moses said to the LORD, Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. (Exodus 4:10)

In the “Girl, you’re enough, you magnificent princess” world, we would see scripture reassuring Moses that indeed he IS enough, right? We’d see God cooing over Moses, telling him, ‘Guy, don’t you know you are enough? You’re my Prince, my love, my cherished bouquet in the garden of God.”

Moses’s objections would be met with a thousand assurances six ways to Sunday of all the good things Moses is. God would assure Moses that he was…enough. Wouldn’t He?

But that didn’t happen. What happened was, God essentially said, ‘You’re NOT enough, Moses. You’re inadequate to the task. But I AM adequate. I AM enough.’

The LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? (Exodus 4:11).

The problem with the ‘you’re enough’ trend is that it downplays our weaknesses and dismisses God’s power to perfect us in our weakness.

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Moses wasn’t enough. And God considered Him a friend, and spoke to Moses face-to-face! (Exodus 33:11). But we are NOT enough. That is as it should be. The wider the gap in our abilities for the task, the more we praise God that He fills that gap with His strength, His power, His abilities.

If we were enough, we wouldn’t need God. If we were enough, we would be God.

theology

Lessons from Jethro: Wisdom and Support in the Bible

Posted on February 13, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I’m going through the John MacArthur Daily Bible. A week or so ago I was in Exodus 18. I’ve been thinking about a sweet scene in that chapter. There are a lot of important scenes in Exodus, and some hard scenes, but this one was sweet and left an impression on me.

Exodus 18:13 – “¶ And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening.” art from Bible.art

It’s when Moses’ father-in-law Jethro comes to Moses after the Exodus at the Red Sea and escape from Pharaoh.

When Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was camped, at the mountain of God. 6And he sent word to Moses: “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her.” 7Then Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and he bowed down and kissed him; and they asked each other about their welfare, and went into the tent.

8Moses told his father-in-law everything that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had confronted them on the journey, and how the LORD had rescued them. 9And Jethro rejoiced over all the goodness which the LORD had done for Israel, in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians. 10So Jethro said, “Blessed be the LORD who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.

11Now I know that the LORD is greater than all the gods; indeed, it was proven when they acted insolently against the people.” 12Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law before God.

The impressive scene goes on afterward when Jethro observes Moses judging Israel and the heavy burden it was, and gives Moses counsel to appoint men and delegate the responsibility in various ways. It was wise and good advice.

Exodus 18:24 – “So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said.” Illustration from Bible.Art

So I got to wondering how often we mimic the Jethro scene in our lives in this century. How often do we have dinner and break bread together, and discuss the wonder that is God? Or exult over what He has done for His people in general and us personally? Do we give or accept wise advise from elders?

Jethro seemed to be available when Moses needed him and retreated when not needed to allow Moses to live his life. Jethro was an observant and loving father-in-law!

The scene was a good reminder for me to be prepared to glorify the Lord with my words, recounting His deeds and ways in conversation. Being available for loved ones, keenly observing otherwise and ready to step in. Think about the Moses-Jethro relationship and see how we can model ourselves after these Bible people who came before us.

theology

God’s Response to Human Questions in the Bible

Posted on January 27, 2025January 27, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

God came to Moses in a burning bush. The bush was burning but not consumed. Moses saw the spectacle and his amazement awakened, He turned aside to view it. That’s when God announced His presence and said Moses was standing on holy ground.

Just think on that for a second. What if you were going about your daily life, and by the side of the road you saw a car that was burning but not consumed. Would you stop? Would you believe it if God said I AM to you?

Anyway, we know Jesus is not making appearances these days but we tend to take for granted the shocking biblical moments when we read about when the supernatural breaks into the mundane. ‘Oh yah, that’s the burning bush’ we think. But pause and consider what it was REALLY like for Moses.

God told Moses what Moses must do. Yet, Moses wasn’t too sure about these marching orders. He questioned God in Exodus 3 in a series of questions. He asked several reasonable questions and God patiently instructed Moses. It was only the last one, where Moses’ questions turned to objection, that God became angry. This is instructive for us.

1. But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11).
2. Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” (Exodus 3:13).
3. Then Moses said, “What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say?” (Exodus 4:1)
4. Then Moses said to the LORD, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent…(Exodus 4:10a).
5. But he said, “Please, Lord, now send the message by whomever You will.” (Exodus 4:13). Other translations say that Moses said ‘Send someone else’.

NOW the Lord became angry. Moses’ questions, while initially reasonable, drifted to faithless objection. He wanted out from the responsibility. There was a consequence to his attitude, as Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary states,

“The anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses—The Divine Being is not subject to [boiling] passion; but His displeasure was manifested by transferring the honor of the priesthood, which would otherwise have been bestowed on Moses, to Aaron, who was from this time destined to be the head of the house of Levi (1Ch 23:13).“

Mary asked a reasonable question to the angel Gabriel informing her that she would soon be pregnant. Very reasonable! She wondered about this, an event that had never happened before and never would again. “How can this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?“(Luke 1:34). In her innocence, she was not rebuked. Her question was sincere and pure.

Habakkuk asked God about the timing of God’s plan, and was patiently instructed. The Prophet was earnestly inquiring. More at Habakkuk Questions the Lord, a Ligonier article.

But Zechariah the father of John the Baptist questioned the angel Gabriel too. Why was he punished and Mary wasn’t? Because of all people, a priest of God should have remembered the same angel Gabriel brought a message to Daniel. He should have remembered that Abraham and Sarah bore Isaac in their dotage just as Gabriel said Zechariah and Elizabeth would bear John. Worse, Zechariah asked for a sign- “how shall I know this?” and thus, demonstrated his unbelief. Gabriel replied exactly that -“because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time.” (Luke 1:20b).

Where Mary accepted the news in submission, Zechariah’s question showed unbelief, so he was punished. JC Ryle here on Zechariah’s question: Zechariah’s Unbelief .

The Pharisees asked a whole bunch of questions. Their questions were insincere, dishonest, and came with an evil agenda (they were trying to trap Him, test Him, and destroy Him.)

God encourages us to ask questions. If we are truly wondering, seeking, grappling with the enormity of it all, God understands. He answered Habakkuk and Mary. He was patient with Moses (to a point). Jeremiah, Job, and Elijah all asked God to let them die. They were not rebuked or punished. Instead, GotQuestions explains:

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God says, “Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come” (Jeremiah 33:3, NLT). How could it be wrong to question God when Jesus Himself encouraged, “Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7–8, HCSB).

The point is, we can ask questions of God sinfully, thinly veiled queries which are really asking Him to justify Himself. We can ask questions sinfully like the Pharisees did, just to gather evidence that God is not worthy. Or we can be a Mary or Habakkuk and sincerely ask and give him worshipful praise when the answer comes- or not, as Job did.

All the articles linked to here are good to explore the question of whether it is OK to question God. Ultimately though, Mary’s and Job’s conclusion, “Let it be done to your servant as you will,” and “Shall we actually accept good from God but not accept adversity?” is the best thought to rest on as you await an answer- whether it comes or not.

theology

Two hypocrites in the Bible you would not expect

Posted on July 16, 2024 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Hypocrites…who needs ’em?!

The word hypocrite means “from Greek hypokritēs actor, hypocrite, from hypokrinesthai, 13th century.
1: a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion
2: a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings.” Source Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary.

Did you know that Moses was a hypocrite? The most humble man on earth? (Numbers 12:3). The one God called His friend? (Exodus 33:11).

Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his fellow Hebrews and looked at their hard labors; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his fellow Hebrews. So he looked this way and that, and when he saw that there was no one around, he struck and killed the Egyptian, and hid his body in the sand. Now he went out the next day, and behold, two Hebrews were fighting with each other; and he said to the offender, “Why are you striking your companion?” But he said, “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and said, “Surely the matter has become known!” (Exodus 2:11-14).

I think it’s safe to say that according to the definition of hypocrite, Moses briefly was “a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings.” He murdered a man and hid it, therefore Moses had no leg to stand on when he rebuked the other men of beating a third guy. ‘You rebuke us of striking a man when you just killed one?!’ They were right. Moses did not have the moral ground here.

How about Lot? Called righteous (2 Peter 2:7), Lot begged the homosexual men at his door not to act wickedly-

But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him, 7and said, “Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly. 8Now look, I have two daughters who have not had relations with any man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do not do anything to these men, because they have come under the shelter of my roof.” 9But they said, “Get out of the way!” They also said, “This one came in as a foreigner, and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them!” So they pressed hard against Lot and moved forward to break the door. (Genesis 19:6-9).

Lot might have been (nominally) righteous, agonized in his spirit for the perversity around him, but he also loved living the comfortable, carnal life in Sodom. These homosexual men tolerated Lot until he rebuked them personally, and they flung Lot’s own hypocrisy right back at him. ‘You live the carnal life here in Sodom, enjoying its pleasures and then try to rebuke us?!’ In addition, out of one side of his mouth Lot called them wicked for wanting to fornicate outside of marriage with men, but then offered them his daughters for fornication outside of marriage. BOTH acts are “wicked.” Lot did not have any moral ground to stand on.

Often, other people see our sins and foibles much earlier and clearly than we see ourselves. 1700s Scottish poet Robert Burns famously wrote “To a Louse“. He was in church one Sunday and the upper class lady in front of him, decked out in her Sunday best, and wearing a hat, did not know that a louse was crawling around in her hair and on her bonnet. She was attracting stares and thinking they were approving stares she tossed her head with pride. She didn’t see that she had vermin on her which she could not see, but others could. He ends his poem thus (translated),

O would some Power the gift to give us
To see ourselves as others see us!
It would from many a blunder free us,
And foolish notion:
What airs in dress and gait would leave us,
And even devotion!

Yes, to see ourselves as others see us, would free us from many a blunder. But God DID gives us a mirror, the Bible. If we look in it, we see ourselves both as we are (sinning vermin) and as He sees us (righteous stumbling sheep). We do need constant reminding of our fleshly estate so that we persist in slaying our fleshly sin. The lesson here today is two-fold and simple-

1.Don’t be a hypocrite, live as you say and speak. We should not put on one face for the outside world and another private one. God sees both faces. And many times, others see the gap between what we say and what we do and rightly assess us as hypocrites. Our job is to kill sin so that gap shrinks over time.

2.Read the Bible to constantly remind us of our gracious God who lifts us up and transforms us from vermin to brethren.

theology

Enough with the ‘Girl, you are enough’

Posted on July 22, 2019July 22, 2019 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

“Girl, you are enough.”
“Girl, you are beautiful.”
“Girl, you’re a princess.”
“Girl, you’re fine just the way you are.”

Doing so manipulates women in an area where many are emotionally weak and needy, which is sad.

Moses’s objections would be met with a thousand assurances six ways to Sunday of all the good things Moses is. God would assure Moses that he was…enough. Wouldn’t He?

But that didn’t happen. What happened was, God essentially said, ‘You’re NOT enough, Moses. You’re inadequate to the task. But I AM adequate. I AM enough.’

The LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? (Exodus 4:11).

The problem with the ‘you’re enough’ trend is that it downplays our weaknesses and dismisses God’s power to perfect us in our weakness.

If we were enough, we would be God.

not enough

secret sin, theology

‘Looking this way and that’: About that secret sin…

Posted on July 17, 2019 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. 12So he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no one around, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. (Exodus 2:11-12)

I think the American law enforcement system would charge Moses with premeditated murder, right? Have you seen enough Law & Order episodes to click onto this? 🙂

I love the Bible. Its honesty, its knowledge of human behavior. That little nugget in the middle of the verse, “looked this way and that…” just makes my heart sing. Not happy that Moses killed someone, we all agree that murder is wrong and a gross violation of God’s commandment. (Exodus 20:13).

Think of how transcendent God is. He is above us, unknowable, not understandable, holy to a degree that would instantly kill us if we got near Him. (Isaiah 55:8-9, Psalm 145:3, Exodus 3:5) .

But also He is immanent. As Emmanuel, He is with us and knowable (1 Corinthians 2:2).

Our God who is both transcendent and immanent is a mighty and majestic God. Moses knew this, and yet as he purposed to kill the Egyptian, he looked this way and that and saw no one was around.

God was around.

How often do we do that though? We purpose to sin. We are deliberate about it. Sin is not ever truly accidental. We look around to see if anyone will see…because we know what we are about to do is wrong. Sin is easier to do when no one’s looking. Why? Because of the Law written on the unsaved’s hearts, they know sin is shameful. If we are saved and we have the Law and the Gospel, we know sin is shameful. It’s better to do it in private, in secret.

Sin is never secret.

For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:14).

In any case, Moses was not alone as he thought. There are often people who see what we do even if we don’t see them. The minute Moses tried to mediate between two fighting men, one of them said to Moses in Exodus 2:14,

But he said, “Who made you a prince or a judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and said, “Surely the matter has become known.”

Moses had destroyed his witness.

Unknowingly as Moses did, when he thought he was alone he might get away with murder but actually the Egyptian had seen Moses. This is why people call us hypocrites. If I gossip, I can’t turn around and chide another woman for gossiping. If I become angry, I have nothing to say to a lady who is angry.

We hear that on the playground, ‘Who made you the boss?’ If we destroy our witness because of our purposeful sin, we have nothing to say about Jesus when the time comes. We will rightly be called a hypocrite. We might be speaking to a person who has witnessed our secret sin and calls US out on it! How embarrassing that is!

Paul told Timothy to watch his life and his doctrine closely, “persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.” (1 Timothy 4:16).

Paul was telling Timothy to watch his personal holiness and his teaching as a leader, but of course we lay people should watch our personal holiness too, as Paul says in verse 15, Be diligent in these matters and absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all.

No one will listen to a stalled-out Christian whose secret sins are known to all. But they may listen to a diligent, growing Christian who has a good word from God.

In that moment you’re considering a sin, and you ‘look this way and that’, stop. If you have sense enough to look this way and that, you have sense enough to consider the Savior who died on the tree for that sin you’re about to do.

I’ll take my own advice too.

secret sins

prophecy, Uncategorized

Ancient brick making in Palestine: Photo

Posted on April 29, 2018April 29, 2018 by elizabethprata

So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters over the people and their foremen, saying, “You are no longer to give the people straw to make brick as previously; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the quota of bricks which they were making previously, you shall impose on them; you are not to reduce any of it. Because they are lazy, therefore they cry out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ Let the labor be heavier on the men, and let them work at it so that they will pay no attention to false words.” (Exodus 5:6-9)

Photos from Palestine from the late 1800s an early 1900s are a joy to view, because the methods of the people, dress, and vistas were largely unchanged from the days Jesus walked. It was only in the 1930s and 40s that development began in earnest and especially after Israel became a nation again in 1948 that things began to modernize and the old ways were vanishing.

In the 1800s, as travel became easier with trains and modern steam ships, many upper class men and women in Britain or America took a Grand Tour of Europe. Interest grew and soon many expeditions to Palestine took place. The Ottoman lands were such a curiosity that a plethora of Travelogues to the Middle East burgeoned in the 1700s to early 1900s.

Travelogues of Palestine are the more than 3,000 books and other materials detailing accounts of the journeys of primarily European and North American travelers to Ottoman Palestine. An in depth survey of Palestine topography, and demographics was done by the Cartographer, Geographer, Philologist. The number of published travelogues proliferated during the 19th century, and these travelers’ impressions of 19th-century Palestine have been often quoted in the history and historiography of the region…

One such travelogue book in my Logos Software is Earthly Footsteps of the Man of Galilee, and another is the one I’ve quoted below, Egypt Through the Stereoscope. The stereoscope is “a device for viewing a stereoscopic pair of separate images, depicting left-eye and right-eye views of the same scene, as a single three-dimensional image.” That’s why the image below is a double image.

I’m going through Dr Abner Chou of The Master’s Seminary lectures on Exodus. (Note- that link will expire on July 31, 2018, as Wikispaces is closing and hosted lectures will go away unless you download them prior). I find it interesting to see what the brick making operation might have looked like and enjoyed this view from a hill above an Egyptian brick-making operation taken from a Travelogue Expedition in the early 1900s written by Dr James Breasted. The book is available today and is considered culturally important.

Anyway, enjoy this long-ago view of making bricks in Egypt, and imagine thousands of years ago the cries of the Hebrews as they toiled under the merciless overseers and merciless baking sun. Then the Lord raised up Moses…

brick making

Caption-

‎Just north of the chief ancient city of the Fayum, we stand looking nearly eastward over the ruins of Crocodilopolis. Behind us stretches the Fayum, rising at last to the vast waste of the Sahara, spreading out to the far Atlantic. Beyond the trees that mark the sky-line before us the Nile is twenty-five miles away.

‎Deep down under these ancient crumbling walls lie the scanty remains of a town at least as old as the twelfth dynasty kings, who 2,000 years before Christ recovered this district from the waters of the lake. They built a temple here sacred to the crocodile god Sebek, after whom the city was called by the Greeks, Crocodilopolis.… When the Greek kings, the Ptolemies, came into power, they used the rich fields of the Fayum as gift lands with which to reward their soldiers.… Some of the greatest products of Greek thought have turned up among the house ruins, such as the Constitution of Aristotle, poems of Sappho and innumerable fragments of Homer.…

‎We see here modern natives engaged in brick-making by the same methods that were employed five thousand years ago. The soft mud is being fixed under the feet of a fellah, while another at a table molds it into bricks. These are taken while still in the molds and carried to the yard by a third native who gently detaches them from the molds and leaves them to dry in long rows.… In spite of the lack of firing they make a very desirable wall; in a practically rainless climate they stand well.

‎From Egypt Through the Stereoscope, by James H. Breasted, Ph.D., with twenty patent maps and plans, 1905

discernment, Uncategorized

Michael did not rebuke satan

Posted on November 25, 2017November 27, 2017 by elizabethprata

But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” These men, however, slander what they do not understand, and like irrational animals, (Jude 1:9-10a).

V. 9. The archangel Michael was sent to bury Moses’ body, but … the devil argued with the angel about the body, apparently claiming the right to dispose of it. But Michael, though powerful and authoritative, did not dare dispute with Satan, so he left the matter in God’s hands, saying, The Lord rebuke you! The false teachers Jude spoke of had no respect for authority or for angels. The apostates’ slandering of celestial beings (v. 8) stands in arrogant contrast to the chief angelic being, Michael, who would not dare slander Satan, chief of the fallen angels.
V. 10. Whereas Michael did not dare accuse the devil, these apostates, by contrast spoke abusively against what they did not understand. This abusive speech may refer to their slandering of angels (v. 8). Their understanding was debased, for it followed only natural animal instinct. The apostates’ only “reasoning” was like that of unreasoning animals. Rather than comprehending what was above them (the angels), they really understood only what was below them (the animals).

Pentecost, E. C. (1985). Jude. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 921). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

And yet today, how daringly some make claims and slander celestial beings. People prance around, “binding” satan, calling him names, asserting power over territory, and claiming to have understandings that only show their brutishness as unreasoning animals.

We (I) should be careful not to disrespect saints, pagans, or celestial beings of God’s order. Glimpses of angels holy and unholy in books like Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation, and glimpses like this one in Jude of the archangel Michael, show how majestic and powerful they are. We don’t have the right to slander them, or each other, nor certainly Jesus. Yet we hear things all the time that impugn Jesus’ nature or His created order and His people.

Today’s prayer:

Lord help me to mind the example shown to us here in Jude. I pray for your intervening help on matters involving satan, let me not rebuke him but rely on You and Your power only. Help guard my tongue, let me speak holy things, helpful things, hospitable things. In Your name I pray this.

abilgaard

N.A Abilgaard, L’Archange saint Michel et Satan se disputant le corps de Moïse, 1782, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Danemark.

encouragement, Uncategorized

“And they crossed over on dry land…”

Posted on September 25, 2017 by elizabethprata

We know about Moses. We love him. We know of his his foibles, his sins, and his great faith. Moses is in the Hebrews Hall of Fame Faith and rightly so. He was used mightily by God.

Moses was the instrument God chose to use to display His salvific power when the Hebrews were pursued by Pharaoh’s army at the Red Sea. Read from the word:

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. (Exodus 14:21-22).

I remember the Indonesian Christmas Tsunami of 2004. I’ve watched news of other tsunamis since. I’ve seen the movie The Perfect Storm, with the boat climbing up that 100′ tall wave. I saw a video of a Puerto Rican dam break in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. A rushing wall of water is destructive and definitely in the top pantheon of fear-inducing natural disasters.

The Hebrews had lived in Egypt for generations. The Nile floods annually. They were certainly familiar with the deadly properties of wayward water.

We read the Bible and we believe all that is within it. (At least, I hope you do). But let’s take the time to really regard that moment. With the Egyptian Army in full pursuit, and with the vast Red Sea in front of them, the escaping Hebrews seemed trapped. Moses had prayed and received an answer. God would allow them to cross the Sea on dry ground. Moses walked down the incline and put his foot on the dry ground, and continued through the wall of water, across the Sea.

It was one thing for Moses to trust God in faith and to step out, but would the grumbling and skittish Hebrews follow?

By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. (Hebrews 11:29).

They did. But imagine that moment. Imagine it as if it were you. You pick your way down the incline, taking care to step carefully over wet vegetation and slippery rocks. You glance to the left and see a towering wall of water and you glance to the right and see an equally imposing wall of water. You look up. The water goes to the sky a long way, and perhaps you can even see fish swimming in the wall. Does your mind even comprehend what you are seeing? Can you process this? Do you dare walk in between the walls of water, trusting God to uphold them for as long as necessary?

You do.

The biblical record states that when the people of Israel finished walking through, and the Egyptian army went in, the Lord closed the wall of water and the Egyptians were thrown into the sea in the midst. It does not state that any of the people of Israel had turned back, lingered, or hesitated on the shore. It does not say that any of the Hebrews had decided to make camp and think it over first. They crossed. All of them.

We can laud them for their faith, and we should. They saw. It was an incredible moment, filled with tension and fear, both of the water and of the Lord. (Exodus 14:31). But as is said in the New Testament,

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29).

Friend, you (and I) are blessed. We believe by faith. We step out in minor and major ways, every day. We trust the invisible Lord to lead us across the slippery ground, over the rocks, and onto the dry sand, and He gets the glory. (Exodus 14:17-18).

He leads. We follow. He gets glory, our faith increases, so we can follow Him more, so He gets more glory, and our faith grows…

Praise Him for the cycle of life eternal.

encouragement, Uncategorized

Old Testament Briefs: The Ark was a box

Posted on February 14, 2017February 21, 2017 by elizabethprata

I love the Old Testament and I study it a lot. I’m blessed with a great teaching pastor who loves it too. He frequently exposits chapters from the OT. When he’s in the NT, he always makes connections to the Old. As a matter of fact, our church held a community-wide seminar last Saturday called “Christ in Context”, where our teaching pastor and one of our elders led us in three sessions that connected Christ from the OT to the New: Continue reading “Old Testament Briefs: The Ark was a box” →