He stood only five feet tall in his socks, and his huge head looked too large for his body. His nose was crooked, his eyes small and piercing, his body frail. Physically there was nothing appealing about him. He fell in love with a young woman and proposed to her, but her insensitive response was, “I like the jewel but not the setting.” He never married. But may I just offer a rhyme for those who ...  Read More

Moses and the people of God were backed up against the Red Sea as Pharaoh and his army charged across the plains toward them. God said, “Tell the people to go forward.” God was about to divide the sea! This was not a natural event any more than the birth of Jesus was a natural event. God did this. God then told Moses that He would harden the hearts of the Egyptians to go in after them. There is no...  Read More

Sometimes the Lord opens a door so wide that it shocks you as you stumble through it into a place that is clearly His will. Especially when the door opens in a place where you know there is opposition to you or to your message. Paul said the same of his time in Ephesus, a godless city of affluence, worldly lusts, and idolatry. He wrote to the church in Corinth, “I hope to spend some time with you,...  Read More

John heard a loud voice from heaven, the place that cannot be shaken, and the voice said, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.” The kingdom of God has come, the authority of Christ is preeminent, Satan is defeated! But not only that,...  Read More

We used to sleep in the same bed together, my two brothers and me, on Christmas Eve. That alone was a Christmas miracle, given the fact that the other 364 days of the year would find us plotting ways to hurt one another. I remember BB gun fights, where we were running around the woods, shooting at each other. Or we would fight from room to room in the house with spit wads, using thick rubber bands...  Read More

Pharaoh, with a heart hardened by God, called all his army and every chariot in Egypt together and took off after Israel. They caught up with God’s people, camped out and backed up against the Red Sea, just as God had led them! The people of Israel heard horses and chariots and men’s footsteps behind them and you get the picture of 2 million people turning away from the Pillar of Cloud to watch th...  Read More

The importance of the firstborn has been lost in many ways in our culture, and of course we want to love each of our children the same. But in the ancient world, the firstborn son represented the future of the family. He was given rights and privileges that were not given to the others, including the right to inherit a double portion from his father. But this was not to show favoritism. He was to ...  Read More

The feast instituted by God in the Old Testament and the Lord’s Supper instituted by Christ in the New Testament are purposeful remembrances that point to God’s mighty acts of deliverance. Moses said to Israel, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place.” He repeats that twice more, “For with a strong ...  Read More

According to a 2022 article in Time magazine, we have really wasted a lot of time over the past several weeks talking about an omnipotent and sovereign God who brought 10 plagues on Egypt to force Pharaoh’s hand and deliver God’s people from 430 years of slavery. Nope. Didn’t happen, and Olvia Waxman, the author of the article clears it all up very simply with three alternate theories. I will just...  Read More

God ordained the Passover as an annual celebration for Israel after the first one in Egypt right before the people of God were delivered from bondage. This meal would become part of a Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Here are a few observations on this story in Exodus 12. First, notice that God says this is a memorial day. God commanded it in order to remind them forever of God’s great deliverance from...  Read More

When Ernest Shackleton and his crew on the ship Endurance set out on December 5, 1914, they were bound for Antarctica. On January 15 their ship got hopelessly stuck in an ice pack east of Antarctica in the Weddell Sea. From then on, their goal was simply to survive. The freezing temperatures and the near starvation were horrible, but when winter approached in late April, the crew of the ship grew ...  Read More

I love the question God asked Pharaoh in Exodus that starts with “How long?” That phrase is also repeated by Pharaoh’s servants. “How long?” God asks Pharaoh, “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me.” There are many times the Psalm writers asked the Lord, “How long?” When will you deliver us, O Lord? But this time it is directed at a man. “H...  Read More