January 28

Hello, Precious Hillcrest Church Family!

Oh, I love reading the Word with you and sharing my heart and thoughts through these simple devotions. Today's reading captivated my heart from the very beginning. We start in Exodus 5:22 where Moses returned to God probably a little bewildered and frustrated demands to know why God has brought more trouble on the people instead of setting them free like He promised. Things aren't going like Moses thought they would. Now he's questioning why God sent him in the first place. And he actually accusses God of not doing anything. Can you imagine talking to God like that?

I imagine that despite himself this assignment that God gave Moses must have filled his heart w/pride. Moses was going to be somebody. He was going to set the Israelites free. But wait! That's not how things were going. He didn't look like somebody special to the Pharoah and he sure didn't look like someone special to the Israelites who's hero he was supposed to become. Now he stood before God humiliated and confused. And what's worse - God Almighty did not look too good either.

Instead of yelling back at Moses or pleading with him to just hang in there, the Word simply says, "Then the Lord said to Moses..." God spoke to Moses and revealed Himself in a whole new amazing way. He declared to Moses, "I am the LORD." God spoke w/Moses and shared how Abraham, Isaac and Jacob knew Him as God Almighty but that now Moses and the people of Israel would know God as the LORD. From Genesis5:22-7:25, God mentions over 28 times that He is the LORD. Obviously God wanted Moses to understand something new.

I did a little reseach. The original Hebrew words for the LORD is "Jehovah" or "Yaweh." I know what those names bring to my mind, but I wanted to probe further to know exactly what God was saying to Moses. God Almighty implied God as ruler of all creation. He revealed Himself to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and others as a BIG and Grandious kind of a God who ruled all. But God didn't refer to Himself as God Almighty to Moses. He distinctly called Himself the LORD - Jehovah. Wow. Think of these names of God - Jehovah Jireh - MY Provider. Jehovah Shalom - MY Peace. Jehovah Rapha - MY Healer. What God was revealing to His precious, bound children and their leader that day is that He is a personal God who wants to rule their hearts and lives. He revealed that He isn't some big, mystical God of the past who loves them from afar. He revealed through His name that He was not only the God but their God right then and there...and that He had plans to set them free from the bondage they were under.

Exodus 6:7 God declared, "I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the LORD who brings you out from under burdens..." Our great heavenly Father, chose that day to declare His personal Lordship over His people and to claim their lives for His rulership and not that of this world. Aren't you so thankful that you serve a God Who is certainly mighty and powerful but Who is personal and Who pursues your heart now in 2012? The LORD, Jehovah, loves you so deeply, so amazingly much. He is after hearts set upon Him, who know Him, and love Him and take on His burden in place of the many, many burdens and snares of this world. May He reveal Himself to you in a special new, fresh, real way this day just as He did so long ago to Moses and the people of Israel! May we cast all our cares and burdens and bondages on Him and walk in His Lordship and care this day. He is the LORD! He is Jehovah!

Have a great weekend! I'll see you tomorrow.

Blessings,

Rolanda

Hillcrest Children's Minister