eagle-fly4Exodus 14, 15

The Israelites cross the Red Sea in a triumphant way. Just as they approach the sea, Pharoah decides to chase them and take them back to Egypt.

As we will see many times, when things are not looking great, Moses gets the blame. “Why did you bring us out to die?”

Moses remains steadfast in faith, but he gets it wrong in one aspect. He is wanting everyone to stand still and let God “do something.” But God has another plan. He says, “Why are you crying out to Me? Stretch out your rod and go forward.”

Now we have to realize that “forward,” meant walking into a giant sea – they would drown under normal circumstances. But God wanted a demonstration of faith, and He also wanted to show a principle.

The rod represented the Word of God. Our Creator was beginning to show Moses his original design – that man would have delegated authority in the earth. Adam lost the authority, but Jesus was to regain it. This demonstration was a type for that. Often times when we are asking God to do something, He is wanting us to do it. As we stretch forth God’s Word, we will see the impossible become possible.

One more note. As we travel through the Old Testament, God will again and again reveal His nature. Many times He does this through a statement like, “I am the God that…” In 15:26 He says, “I am the Lord that heals you.” (The Hebrew actually says Jehovah-rapha”). Every time one of these characteristics is identified, we need to grab hold of it and realize that this identifies the nature of Jesus.

He is still our Healer, if we let Him be.

Matthew 18:21-35

Uh-oh. We are getting into sticky territory. One of the hardest concepts for many people to grasp is the significance of forgiveness.

John Bevere wrote a book entitled, “The Bait Of Satan,” which addresses that issue. Since Jesus says that your prayers won’t be answered and God can’t forgive you if you don’t forgive others, Satan has an easy trick.

He gets others to commit “unforgivable” sins against you, and he has you locked up. The offense becomes bait to lure you into a cage of unp

Jesus makes it very clear in today’s reading. We have been forgiven a huge debt by our great King Jesus. He paid the price for our sin nature. So if we don’t forgive others their sins against us, we are treating His sacrifice as unholy, and we take ourselves out of the game.

Forgiveness is something we do on a regular basis. We have to make sure that we aren’t “holding on” to anything against anyone. Let them go, and the devil has to let us go.

Free to worship God. Free to know that our prayers are being answered.

Just totally free.

Blessings!

Suellen Estes