Devotional Thoughts

Exodus 14:1-5    "And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so. And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?"   The children of Israel as a nation were finally walking away from Egypt after 430 years. Various maps of the possible route they took may differ. We do not know the exact location of some of the places mentioned in Exodus. One thing i...

Isaiah 14:3-7     "And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,  (4)  That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!  (5)  The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.  (6)  He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.  (7)  The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing." To this point in Isaiah, the Lord has been speaking to the people concerning a coming time of persecution. It was to be a time when they would be carried away into a strange land to serve in bondage. The picture has not been one of great beauty for the people; rather, they would be bond slaves to a people who did not care fo...

Exodus 13:17-22    "And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt: But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt. And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you. And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness. And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people."   God always leads us i...

"Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God."  Matthew 5:9   I, along with a dear brother in Christ, Elder Andrew Tucker, recently visited a Civil War battlefield near Manassas, Virginia. The battle that took place in July of 1861 is known as “The Battle of Bull Run” or “The Battle of Manassas.” It was significant because it was the first major land battle fought in the American Civil War. We had a fantastic Park Ranger who took us on a tour of the battlefield explaining the events that led up to the battle as well as what happened during the actual fighting that lasted just one day.  Of the number of memorable stories told by the Park Ranger, which included how Thomas Jackson got his famous name “Stonewall,” was the story of how important a group of men known as the “fire-eaters” were in the years leading up to the start of the Civil War. The fire-eaters were men of some renown in the South who, by their “fiery” rhetoric, called f...

Isaiah 12:5-6    "Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth.  (6)  Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee." I could not have planned these verses any better. In fact, I can't do anything better than our Lord. Praise His Holy Name! We are in the season of Thanksgiving and our Scripture speaks of the "excellent things" which God has done.  Our hearts become glad when we stop to think about all that God has done for us. A glad heart has a tune that will express itself in some way or another. I am a people watcher and I take note when I am around someone who is whistling or humming or singing. That tells me that they are happy and glad. Music can be a very good expression of the heart; therefore, just sing as we think about God. " Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee."  Let us take time ea...