Day 43

Exodus 14 continues with some very specific instructions given to the Israelites.  The Lord tells them where they are to set up their camp for the night.  While they are resting the pharaoh and his army catch begin to catch up to them.  The Israelites see pharaoh's army approaching and begin to cry out to Moses.  They begin to say that it would have been better to serve pharaoh then to die in the desert.  Moses is instructed by God to have the people prepare to flee and then he stretches out his hands and the Red Sea begins to part.  The Lord provides a way of escape for the Israelites by allowing them to walk through the Red Sea on dry ground.  Once the Israelites are safe on the other side and pharaoh and his men have entered into the Red Sea, the Lord gives more instructions to Moses.  This time Moses stretches out his arms and the Red Sea closes in on itself killing all of the pharaoh's men.  To me this is when the Israelites really began to listen to Moses.  We get a hint of that in verse 31 "And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant."

Chapter 15 of Exodus is rather confusing to me.  It is basically a song about Moses and Miriam.  Miriam if you do not remember is Moses's sister.  This whole song to me is rather confusing in the simple fact that it does not rhyme or carry any form of structure that I associate with song lyrics.  I tried reading it in several various ways trying to make it flow like a song, no such luck for me.

As we continue in Matthew chapter 26 we visit the garden of Gathsemane.  Jesus has traveled to this place to pray.  Jesus takes three of his disciples further then the rest and ask if they will watch with Him. As he prays they fall asleep.  Not only did they fall asleep once, but they fell asleep three times.  I think this little section shows us a good description of Jesus's human side.  We see that his physical self is nervous about what is about to happen and he in sorts kind of pleads to God.  He knows that there is no changing though and says in verse 42 "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done."  As He is speaking to his disciples Judas and a large crowd approach.  Judas kisses Jesus as a sign for the crowd and the crowd then takes Jesus as a captive.  All of the other disciples flee after Jesus says a few words about fulfilling scripture.  Jesus is put before the Sanhedrin and put on trial.  His trial was not fair by any means but He shows a form of humility throughout the whole ordeal.  When they finally accuse Jesus they begin to slap and beat Jesus with their fist.  Let me just say that I am glad that I was not one of them and I can only hope that they found forgiveness later on and repented of their way.  To finish off chapter 26 we read of the three times Peter denies Jesus.  Immediately after that third denial the rooster crows and Peter remembers what Jesus had told him.  Peter goes out and by that I can only imagine that he went outside the city and he wept bitterly.  If I were in his place I don not know if just weeping bitterly would suffice.  I think I would be wailing like a lost sinner that was just recently sent to hell.

Tomorrow's reading is:
Exodus 16, 17, 18 and Matthew 27:1 - 26