Be Still And Know

Exodus 16.29 NLT  'They must realize that the Sabbath is the Lord’s gift to you. That is why he gives you a two-day supply on the sixth day, so there will be enough for two days. On the Sabbath day you must each stay in your place. Do not go out to pick up food on the seventh day.' It was vital that the weekly rhythm of life was maintained in the desert. On the face of it, this was going to be difficult to achieve with God’s miraculous provision of daily food in the morning and evening. But God knew this and so provided the people with twice the normal supplies of food on a Friday in order to allow the Sabbath to be a day of rest. True to form, some of the people went out on the Sabbath to look for food and sure enough there was nothing there. The principle of a day of rest was foundational to their life together. A day of rest continues to be of crucial importance to us today. Sundays have got progressively busier in recent years. The days when most of the people travelling on a Sunday were going to chur

Exodus 16.19-20 NLT Then Moses told them, “Do not keep any of it until morning.” But some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. Moses was very angry with them. The rule couldn’t have been simpler. The bread or manna that God gave to his people every morning would sustain them for the day ahead, but it couldn’t be kept overnight. Formed by the secretion of insects, if it was left it would soon become mouldy and inedible. All the people needed to do was to obey this very simple rule and then all would be well. But people will be people, and some decided that it was a silly rule and that they would try to hang on to the food. Moses was understandably angry with them. Why is it that human beings find it so hard to obey? The story of humanity from the Garden of Eden onwards is one of recurrent disobedience. This is tragic because all the blessings of this life are on offer to those who will obey, and disobedience invariably leads t

Exodus 16.17-18 NLT 'So the people of Israel did as they were told. Some gathered a lot, some only a little. But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough.' God’s miraculous provision of food for the people of Israel throughout their 40 years in the wilderness is breath-taking. I particularly love these verses because of this wonderful detail that, although the families had very different needs, everyone had just enough. Enough is a precious word and we should long that our world would come to love it. Sadly, although there is plenty of food for everyone in the world, there are millions of people who go to bed hungry at night. At the same time food wastage is on a colossal scale and it is reckoned that on average people in the UK waste more than £350 worth of food every year. It is impossible to know the exact number but it is said that about nine million people in the world die of starvation every year. It is a distressing statistic that a child dies of hunger every 10 seconds. If this were an

Exodus 16.11-12 NLT Then the Lord said to Moses, “I have heard the Israelites’ complaints. Now tell them, ‘In the evening you will have meat to eat, and in the morning you will have all the bread you want. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’” We cannot be sure how many Israelites left Egypt, but it was certainly many thousands. Feeding such a group of people would have been a massive logistical exercise in any location, but to do so in a desert would seem an impossible task. But God had an answer and, miraculously, throughout their 40 years of wilderness wanderings, the people were fed. In the evening they fed on quails, which are migratory birds belonging to the partridge family. On their long flights quails would often become exhausted in the evening and large flocks of them would land on the desert floor and be easy to catch. In the morning the people were supplied with bread which was called manna, a word which literally means “What’s that?” because that’s what the people said when they f

Exodus 15.23-24 NLT When they came to the oasis of Marah, the water was too bitter to drink. So they called the place Marah (which means “bitter”). Then the people complained and turned against Moses. “What are we going to drink?” they demanded. Pressure. Every leader knows what it is to face discontented people. I hasten to add that I haven’t faced a huge number, but then I’ve never taken tens of thousands of people on a walk through a desert! It’s easy to understand why they were complaining. Life in a desert is hard enough work even when there is a good supply of water, so arriving at an oasis and finding its water to be too bitter to drink must have been a shattering experience for everyone. So the question is, what is Moses the great leader going to do about it? He could have done many things. He could have apologised or tried to put a positive gloss on the experience by saying that everything had gone all right until now, or he could have joined the people in complaining. The choice he made was a go

Exodus 15.2 NLT The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. This is my God, and I will praise him— my father’s God, and I will exalt him! This is part of a wonderful song that Moses sang after the people of Israel had crossed the Red Sea. After 400 years they had finally left Egypt. 400 years is a very long time and the people could easily have stayed there for ever. But there was a deep longing to be free from the persecution and slavery that they had experienced in Egypt. Moses’ song of victory beautifully expressed a national sigh of relief that the suffering was now at an end. At last they were free. The people’s exodus from Egypt was a defining moment in the nation’s story because it told them so much about their God. They learnt that God is, by his very nature, a God who loves to set people free. He’s a God of salvation. It’s not surprising that throughout the Bible there are frequent references back to the crossing of the Red Sea. If God was able to overcome an obstacle as great a

Exodus 14.13-14 NLT Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” This is a crunch moment in the history of the people of Israel. After the long succession of plagues, they are finally heading out of Egypt and it is said that they did so with fists raised in defiance. Surely Pharoah would at last be glad to see them go! But no, he changed his mind yet again and sent out his army to stop them. It must have been a truly terrifying moment. We are told that Pharaoh sent six hundred of his best chariots after the people and that must have been an incredibly intimidating sight for them. The people immediately panicked and who wouldn’t? They lashed out at Moses, blaming him for bringing them out into the desert to die. They argued that it would have been much better to have continued as slaves in Egypt than to be corpses in the wilderness. It’s never easy fo

Exodus 4.21 NLT And the Lord told Moses, “When you arrive back in Egypt, go to Pharaoh and perform all the miracles I have empowered you to do. But I will harden his heart so he will refuse to let the people go.” God sometimes asks people to do some extraordinarily difficult jobs. But this must be one of the toughest. Moses who, as we know, was feeling very inadequate and ill-equipped for the task, is now told that when he went to plead with Pharoah to let the people of Israel leave Egypt, he would fail. Time and again, Moses would go to Pharaoh and beg him to release the enslaved people and time and again Pharaoh would say no. God sent one plague after another and even though, at times, Pharaoh seemed to be weakening, he continually refused to let the people go. Even after the tenth plague, in which the first-born sons and livestock were killed throughout Egypt, Pharaoh withdrew his permission to the people of Israel to leave the land. What amazes me about this period in the history of the people of

Exodus 4.16 NLT “Aaron will be your spokesman to the people. He will be your mouthpiece, and you will stand in the place of God for him, telling him what to say.” Moses felt sure that his speech difficulties disqualified him from serving God. How could someone who was tongue-tied possibly lead the people of Israel and negotiate with Pharaoh? The answer was simple. His brother Aaron could do that part of the role, and Moses could be the person who kept close to God and listened to his voice. In an ideal world, Moses would have been a perfect communicator and would have been able to do to the job himself, but in the real world he needed help. We don’t live in an ideal world! This means that we need to be continually light on our feet and ready to adapt to new circumstances. The pandemic has forced us to operate in all sorts of different ways. In an ideal world pandemics wouldn’t exist, but in the real world they do and, in the life of the church, we have had to look at everything we do with new eyes. Meetin

Exodus 4.13 NLT But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send someone else.” I wonder if you can identify with Moses. I certainly can. Time and again God has clearly asked me to do something and, like Moses, I have pleaded with him to find someone else. Moses would quickly have recognised that going back to Egypt was going to be hard enough, let alone to become the leader of his people and negotiating with the mighty Pharaoh. Anyone would have shaken at the knees to have taken on such a role. The reasons that people use for objecting to God’s call are many. Some people, like Moses, are overwhelmed by the challenge and feel that their lack of skills makes them a poor choice. Others object to God’s call because they feel that the job they have been offered is beneath them. God calls them to be involved in youth work when they would much rather be in the worship band; or God calls them to do cleaning in the church when they would rather become a leader. What Moses had to learn was that God knew what he wa

Exodus 4.10 NLT But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” I feel a bit sorry for Moses. I have often heard people suggesting that Moses was just looking for excuses to turn down God’s job offer. However, Moses’ reply to God sounds to me a perfectly reasonable objection. He clearly had significant problems with speaking and this would, it seems to me, make him a far from ideal candidate for a job which would be all about effective communication. But God was having none of it. He had decided that Moses was the man for the job and no objections, however substantial, were going to cause him to change his mind. The point is this, and it’s one that we meet on many occasions throughout the Bible. When God chooses someone to work for him, he equips them with the ability to do it. In the New Testament we are introduced to Peter who, throughout Jesus’ ministry, consisten

Exodus 3.15 NLT God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh, the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.” I wonder what you would say if God asked you to lead his people at a time of desperate need. I suspect that you, like Moses, would have a string of questions to ask! The first thing that he needed to know was who was sending him. The people of Israel were bound to ask, and he needed to have a good answer for them. God told him that he should say that “I am” had sent him to them, and then spelt out that this was God’s eternal name and that he was the God of their forefathers. We can be sure that the stories of the great fathers of the Jewish faith would often have been told amongst the people of Israel, and they needed to know that Moses stood in that line of succession. At the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry a similar situation occurred. As Jesus sent out his disciples he recognised that they would need to know with what

Exodus 3.11-12 NLT But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?” God answered, “I will be with you.” Moses was about 80 years old when God spoke to him from the burning bush. He was in the desert of Midian, on the eastern side of the Red Sea, because he was running away after he had murdered an Egyptian. The idea of not merely returning to Egypt but appearing before Pharaoh must have seemed crazy to him. And, given his upbringing in the royal palace, he hardly had the common touch to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. It is little wonder, therefore, that Moses questioned God’s decision to appoint him as the people’s leader. When God calls people to serve him they almost always the same question, “Who am I?” I certainly did. I was 18 years old when a man in our church asked me to go and preach in a village church near our home. I was amazed that he thought I would be suitable. It sounded like a terrifying responsibility. What would

Exodus 3.4 NLT When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. Moses’ life had been a remarkable one. Born in Egypt when the People of Israel were in slavery there, Pharaoh had gone to extraordinary lengths to kill off all Israelite baby boys. Moses had miraculously survived and was brought up as a member of Pharaoh’s household. Years later he saw one of his own Israelite people being abused and, in his anger, killed the perpetrator. Moses soon recognised that his own life was in danger and so he fled from the country. He got married to Zipporah and in our reading today we find him looking after his father in law’s sheep. The life of a shepherd was a tough one. The heat could be intense and he continually needed to be alert to the threat from wolves and other wild animals. Much of what happened was familiar and predictable. However, in the midst of his working day he was suddenly aware of a burning bush. That

Acts 28.30-31 NLT 'For the next two years, Paul lived in Rome at his own expense. He welcomed all who visited him, boldly proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. And no one tried to stop him.' Paul’s journey to Rome was an amazing adventure. It was a long and difficult journey during which he and his companions survived a shipwreck. We would love to know far more details but now, in these final verses of the Acts of the Apostles, we find Paul settled into a house in Rome. We are informed that he was guarded by a soldier and so he was being kept under what we would normally call house arrest. However, he was clearly given considerable freedom and, wonderfully, he was able to continue with his ministry. There was no keeping Paul down! The book of Acts began with a small, frightened and confused group of Jesus followers waiting in Jerusalem. Jesus gave them instructions to take the Good News to the ends of the earth but that seemed impossible at the time. The 28 chapters of t

Acts 24.24-25 NLT Sending for Paul, Felix and his wife Drusilla listened as he told them about faith in Christ Jesus. As he reasoned with them about righteousness and self-control and the coming day of judgment, Felix became frightened. “Go away for now,” he replied. “When it is more convenient, I’ll call for you again.” Paul is now on the Mediterranean coast in Caesarea, the regional centre of Roman authority. The city had only recently been built and it became the largest settlement in Judaea. It was here that Pilate had been based. Governor Felix was in charge by this stage and Paul was brought before him after the plot to kill Paul in Jerusalem. What I love about our verses today is that they are such a beautiful illustration of the fact that, whatever the circumstances Paul was in, he just kept witnessing. You couldn’t stop him! At one moment he was happy to share his testimony with a crowd who, he knew, were hating every word he said and the next we find him sitting down with the most powerful man i

Acts 23.11 NLT That night the Lord appeared to Paul and said, “Be encouraged, Paul. Just as you have been a witness to me here in Jerusalem, you must preach the Good News in Rome as well.” Paul was going through an incredibly difficult time. His arrival in Jerusalem had sparked a riot and the Roman authorities struggled to know what to do with him. They didn’t know how to handle religious disputes and so they tried to hand the matter over to the Jewish council. However, when Paul appeared before them the meeting soon descended into chaos. The Roman commander who was watching the proceedings thought that Paul was in danger of being torn apart and so he ordered his soldiers to rescue him and take him back into protective custody. By this time they had discovered that he was a Roman citizen and so they knew that they had to be very careful with Paul. In the midst of this confusing and dangerous situation, God spoke to Paul confirming the fact that his witness would continue and even take him to the heart of

Acts 22.1-2 NLT “Brothers and esteemed fathers,” Paul said, “listen to me as I offer my defence.” When they heard him speaking in their own language, the silence was even greater. Paul faced intense hostility when he reached Jerusalem. People had heard reports of his ministry amongst the Gentiles, and he was accused of telling people to disobey the Jewish laws. A riot broke out and the crowd cried out for Paul to be killed. The commander of the Roman regiment was informed that the city was in uproar and so he sent his troops to get hold of Paul. The soldiers were clearly unsure what to do with Paul and indeed at first the commander had got him confused with an Egyptian who had led a major rebellion. Paul clarified that he was a Jew from Tarsus and asked for the opportunity to speak to the crowd. Interestingly, the commander agreed. This was an incredibly sensitive moment. Many in the crowd were going to hate what Paul had to say, and he knew it. He needed to tread with extreme care, and we can learn a lot

Acts 21.13 NLT Paul said, “Why all this weeping? You are breaking my heart! I am ready not only to be jailed at Jerusalem but even to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus.” There was no stopping Paul. He was absolutely determined to go to Jerusalem and no one was able to stand in his way. That’s not to say that they didn’t try! When he arrived in Tyre in Syria, he spent a week with the believers there and they prophesied through the Holy Spirit that he shouldn’t go to Jerusalem. Some days later he went down the coast to the important city of Caesarea where he met a man named Agabus who had the gift of prophecy. He dramatically took hold of Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands with it, and then declared that the owner of the belt would be bound by the Jews in Jerusalem and then turned over to the Gentiles. Upon hearing this everyone begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem. But he wouldn’t be stopped. He announced that he was ready to be jailed and even to die for the sake of his Lord. If risk assessments

Acts 20.36-38 NLT 'When he had finished speaking, he knelt and prayed with them. They all cried as they embraced and kissed him good-bye. They were sad most of all because he had said that they would never see him again.' There was clearly a very strong bond between Paul and the Ephesian elders and this moment of parting was painful. Paul, of all people, had an absolute conviction in the wonderful future that God had for him. He often spoke with great confidence about the after-life. In Philippians he reflected on the life to come and summarised the situation by saying “I long to go and be with Christ, which would be better by far for me.” (Philippians 1.23) I am sure that Paul had no doubt that the elders would also have been looking forward to the same future. But even so this moment of departure was sad and painful and the tears flowed. We shouldn’t be afraid of our emotions. At the funeral of a Christian we always have much to celebrate. We believe that Jesus came to bring us eternal life and, therefo