SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
7/14/2012 8:18:20 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm
105 PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm
105:16-41
Message
of the verses: Just a bit of review
from the last SD on Psalm 105 as we looked at several introductions to this
psalm finding out that it is a psalm about the history of the nation of
Israel. This is not the first psalm that
we have looked at that was about the history of Israel. Dr. Wiersbe believes that this psalm was
written by someone who came back from the exile in Babylon. The Jewish people needed to be reminded of
their past and also the covenants that the Lord had made with Abraham and then
with David in order to help them begin a new life in the country that their
ancestors lived in and so this psalm would help them to remember their past.
Joseph—God’s
Wise Preparation (vv. 16-25): “16
And He called for a famine upon the land; He broke the whole staff of bread. 17
He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. 18 They afflicted
his feet with fetters, He himself was laid in irons; 19 Until the time that his
word came to pass, The word of the LORD tested him. 20 The king sent and
released him, The ruler of peoples, and set him free. 21 He made him lord of
his house And ruler over all his possessions, 22 To imprison his princes at
will, That he might teach his elders wisdom. 23 Israel also came into Egypt;
Thus Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. 24 And He caused His people to be very
fruitful, And made them stronger than their adversaries.25 He turned their
heart to hate His people, To deal craftily with His servants.”
Who doesn’t love the story of Joseph
when they read about it in the book of Genesis, for Joseph was a young man whom
the Lord used in a mighty way, and he was also a young man who trusted the Lord
greatly, and suffered for the cause of His God in order to bring about the plan
that God had for His chosen people.
Suffering brings about glory as we read “After you have suffered for a little
while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will
Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you (1Peter 5:10).” We can also read concerning a servant, which
Joseph was that being a servant precedes being a ruler. (“"His master said to him, ’Well done,
good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in
charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’)” (Matthew 25:21)
God’s Word that He gave to Joseph
came true and the way that God fulfilled this promise was to send Joseph to
Egypt through means that caused great suffering to him and also to his father,
as Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son. Once
in Egypt Joseph was a slave and bought by a man named Potiphar, and Joseph was
successful because God was with him, yet Potiphar wife desired to sleep with
Joseph, but Joseph would not do this so she accused him of rape. Joseph was then thrown into prison where God
was with him there too as he became a leader to those in charge of the
prisoners. It is believed that Joseph
was about 17 years old when his brothers sold him into slavery and about 30
years old when he began to serve Pharaoh as the second in command of Egypt. Joseph interpreted a dream for Pharaoh
showing that there would be seven years of plenty in the land followed by seven
years of famine. The famine was what
brought Joseph and the rest of his family to Egypt, and this is where the Lord
was going to take 400 years to make this family into a nation. Joseph was a big part of God’s plan in
getting the rest of his family to Egypt where God’s Word was fulfilled by
having Joseph’s brother’s bow down to him.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “No matter how
dark the day, God always sends His servant ahead to prepare the way. God permitted the Egyptians to persecute His
people, for suffering is one of the secrets of fruitfulness. God did not force the Egyptians to hate the
Jews nor did He force Pharaoh to harden his heart. The Lord arranged the circumstances so that
Pharaoh and his officers could either obey or disobey His Word, and their
repeated disobedience hardened their hearts more. God sent the plagues, but Pharaoh would not
obey. The same sun that melts the ice
will harden the clay.”
Moses—God’s
Awesome Judgments (vv. 26-41): “26
He sent Moses His servant, And Aaron, whom He had chosen. 27 They performed His
wondrous acts among them, And miracles in the land of Ham. 28 He sent darkness
and made it dark; And they did not rebel against His words. 29 He turned their
waters into blood And caused their fish to die. 30 Their land swarmed with
frogs Even in the chambers of their kings. 31 He spoke, and there came a swarm
of flies And gnats in all their territory. 32 He gave them hail for rain, And
flaming fire in their land. 33 He struck down their vines also and their fig
trees, And shattered the trees of their territory. 34 He spoke, and locusts
came, And young locusts, even without number, 35 And ate up all vegetation in
their land, And ate up the fruit of their ground. 36 He also struck down all
the firstborn in their land, The first fruits of all their vigor. 37 Then He
brought them out with silver and gold, And among His tribes there was not one
who stumbled. 38 Egypt was glad when they departed, For the dread of them had
fallen upon them. 39 He spread a cloud for a covering, And fire to illumine by
night. 40 They asked, and He brought quail, And satisfied them with the bread
of heaven. 41 He opened the rock and water flowed out; It ran in the dry places
like a river.”
We see in this section as well as
the last that the psalmist uses the word “Ham” when referring to the people of
Egypt. Ham was of course one of the
son’s of Noah, and it was the three sons of Noah that God used to repopulate
the earth after the flood. The children
of Israel came from the line of Shem which can be seen in Luke’s Gospel when
giving the genealogy of Jesus Christ, “Lu 3:36
the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of
Noah, the son of Lamec.”
The
story that is contained in this section is a very familiar story as it tells
about Moses, the servant of God, and how the Lord would use Moses and Aaron to
lead the new nation of Israel out of bondage from the Land of Egypt. God performed ten miracles or plagues in
order to have Pharaoh finally agree into allowing the children of Israel to
leave Egypt. The psalmist writes that
Egypt was glad to see Israel leave and gave them gifts of silver and gold as
kind of a goodbye present. The Egyptians
were in dread of them because of the plagues that God sent on them and after
all of their first born children died I believe that Egypt was afraid that the
next plague would have killed all of them.
Just
as in the case of Joseph God had His servant prepared to take Israel through
another crisis, and Moses was the man that God prepared for this job. Moses was rescued from the edict that Pharaoh
that all baby boys were to be killed, and was raised in the household of Pharaoh. Moses knew that he was from Israel and sensed
that God had chosen him to lead the people out of Egypt. Israel knew that God would send a redeemer
and so Moses tried to do this on his own when he was forty years old by killing
an Egyptian. Moses fled to the land of
Midian where he lived as a shepherd for the next forty years of his life. At age 80 God called Moses to lead the
Israelites out of Egypt by speaking to him from a burning bush. The rest as is said is history and this is
what the psalmist writes about in this section.
The
ten plagues that God performed in Egypt were actually against different gods
that Egypt worshiped, showing them that there was only one True God and they
should worship Him. The psalmist
mentioned the ninth plague first, the plague of darkness and then stayed in
sequence in mentioning the rest of them.
The psalmist then proceeds to bring up some of the miracles that God did
while He led Israel to the Promised Land, miracles of the keeping Israel
comfortable with a cloud over them during the day and fire at night to keep
them warm. Giving the water out of a
rock and food from heaven along with some meat too, so we see that God cared
for His people, but when reading the text in Exodus through Deuteronomy we also
see much disbelief with the children of Israel.
Spiritual meaning for my life
today: I have not seen the types of miracles that
God did to get Israel out of Egypt, but I have seen an even bigger miracle, and
that is that the Lord Jesus Christ has freed me from the bondage of sin, which
is far better than what He did with the children of Israel, freeing them from
the bondage of slavery in Egypt. Being
freed from the bondage of sin makes me free indeed, and ready to serve the Lord
with the new life that He has given me through the Lord Jesus Christ.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
“He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of
you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?”
Memory
verses for the week: 2Peter 1:1-5
1.
Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To
those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness
of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2.
Grace and mercy be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our
Lord; 3. Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining
to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His
own glory and excellence. 4. For by
these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by
them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the
corruption that is in the world by lust.
5.
Nor for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply
moral excellence and in your moral excellence knowledge,
7/14/2012
9:31:48 AM
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