- araratchurch
- Jul 14, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 11, 2022
“Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.”
Exodus 12:35-36 NKJV
My mother and father birthed a church when I was not yet seven years old. We started in a small storefront building on Piedmont Road in Atlanta. The thing is, after only being there a short time, the owner of the storefront said we had to go.
The backstory is that a liquor store wanted to move into that area and there was an ordinance about there having to be a certain distance between a liquor store and a church. Apparently, the liquor store had made our landlord an offer he couldn’t refuse to evict us. So, my father didn’t know what he was going to do; but as always, took it to the Lord in prayer.
Here, I’ll make a long story short: a competing liquor store chain made it financially possible for us to move just across the street to a larger storefront building with a better orientation toward the street. Their reason for doing this was to keep that competing liquor store from placing a store there. But God used their motivation to enable my parents to have an even better place for their little church.
Now, some may wonder whether it was right to take money from the owner of a liquor store. Well, there was nothing illegal about the transaction and there were no strings attached to it. It was God’s way of providing for our little church to survive.
On that day the liquor store owner, an enemy in purpose, served to help our church survive.
Here’s another story.
When I was in college I had a professor who I thought didn’t like me very much. She had a stern demeanor and seemed to cater to the more traditional students, those coming from wealthy homes, higher society sorts. So, I dreaded interactions with her. Although I did well in her classes, she never really made overtures to me as she did to some of the other young women.
In my third year of college I developed a bad case of mononucleosis. The lack of sleep and sporadic eating caught up with my immune system. I didn’t really miss many of my classes but I was suffering.
Within this period of time there was an important paper due in one of my classes and there was a deadline for getting it to the office designated to receive the paper. I had worked all night and finished the paper in just enough time to get it in on time. My mother was driving me to the college to turn the paper in and we got caught in traffic waiting on a train! So, when I got to the office to turn in the paper (running!), they refused it as I was about five minutes late. I stood there dismayed for a moment then turned around from the person who had rejected the paper. As I started away from the door, I bursted into tears. I was desperate. Suddenly, I see the previously mentioned professor coming toward me and she asked what was going on. I explained the situation (I must have looked like the hind wheels of destruction). Well, don’t you know, she marched her stern self to the office where the paper was to be turned in and gave them several pieces of her mind, asking if they were trying to kill me (I had explained to her about the mononucleosis). Needless to say, they took the paper and found it in good order.
No matter how she felt about me before, on that day, she blessed me.
Today we continue to find Moses exiting Egypt with the great host of his people. The Lord had formerly instructed Moses to tell the people to ask the Egyptians to give them gold, silver, clothes and so on. Amazingly, as the Hebrews exited Egypt, they did so with great amounts of wealth and supply from the Egyptians! Interestingly, the Lord had prophesied this happening to Abram many years before.
“Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.””
Genesis 15:13-14 NKJV
Sure enough, the people were not only allowed to leave their situation of bondage, but did so with plunder from their oppressors. That day, the Egyptian’s—though enemies to the people of God for hundreds of years—blessed them.
Make no mistake, when your life is submitted to the Lord, His plan for you may be enabled through your enemies.
For today let us discover what Moses discovered:
The Lord can use even your enemies to bless you.
- araratchurch
- Jul 13, 2022
- 4 min read
“And the Egyptians urged the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders. And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves.”
Exodus 12:33-34, 39 NKJV
Let’s begin today with two bread stories.
First I want tell you a story my father told about when he was a young boy. You see, his parents were immigrants from Armenia, so his mother was a genuine Armenian cook. As a matter of fact, she (believe it or not) was the one who brought yogurt to America. She made yogurt for her family and would also sell it to others (they lived in the Los Angeles area). The people who bought her yogurt had never eaten such a thing, but they liked it. She was also a maker of Armenian flatbread (lavash). She would take some of these large flat loaves of bread, cooked in her in-the-ground bread oven my grandfather had fashioned for her, and roll them in damp towels for the purpose of sandwich making. She sent her sons and daughter to school each day with a homemade bag lunch consisting of a rolled sandwich. From what my father described, she probably put whatever leftovers she had on hand and rolled it up in the bread for their wonderful lunch.
But you see, there was a problem. In that day and time different ethnicities weren’t as celebrated as they are today. And, among children and young people, there has always been the desire to fit in. Therefore, my father, having this odd looking sandwich none of the other children understood, would go off by himself to eat his lunch. When I think of that story I can imagine his large chubby hands holding that wonderful sandwich. He was so very hungry, but desperately trying to avoid being mocked.
So that was my story about flatbread.
Now I’m going to tell you another story about yeast bread.
When I was in school, I can remember how wonderful some parts of the lunches would smell while being prepared. Fried chicken was always a welcome smell; and the baking pizza (on Fridays), was also a wonderful aroma. But, when I think of the smell of school lunches, what first comes to my mind is how the yeast rolls (made fresh almost daily) would smell while they were being cooked.
Now, as a little background, you need to understand that in elementary school I basically ate lunch every day. I was hungry and I ate. But, when I went to high school (our high school was 8th through 12th grade), I became self-conscious about eating at school, as I was chubby. So, rather than being self-conscious about eating (isn’t it horrible the things we do to ourselves?), I didn’t eat lunch basically through most of my high school years.
Now back to those yeast rolls.
The yeast rolls would start cooking around 10 o’clock; and the smell of those big fluffy rolls would go through my small high school. I would smell those yeast rolls, knowing I wasn’t going to eat them. It was a sort of torture. Yeast rolls smell incredible when they are baking.
By the way, yeast is an interesting ingredient. As you may be aware, yeast is a single-celled fungus. It can take a small mixture of bread ingredients and turn it into a large wonderful loaf (or those rolls!).
Interestingly, Jesus used yeast as a metaphor to represent both a good influence and a bad influence.
Jesus, in speaking of the teaching of the Pharisees, used yeast as a metaphor for what was not good.
“Then Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.” And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have taken no bread.” Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Matthew 16:6-7, 12 NKJV
However, the Lord also used the metaphor of leaven (in a good light), referencing how the Kingdom of God works.
“Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.””
Matthew 13:33 NKJV
The apostle Paul used yeast to represent evil attitudes in believers.
“Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
I Corinthians 5:6-8 NKJV
Today we find Moses (and the rest of the people exiting Egypt) being presented with a bread and yeast situation.
You see, the Egyptians had become terrified of the Hebrews, associating them with the terrible plagues which they had endured. Therefore, their exit from Egypt would be hasty, not particularly orderly and unplanned. Due to this fact—and due to the fact that bread was most likely cooked fresh daily—they were caught in a situation where their bread would not have time for the yeast to rise before cooking it. Therefore, they took their bread bowls and left in haste.
We also see that, having no time to make provisions for themselves, they stopped not long after exiting Egypt and baked the unleavened bread. This experience became memorialized in the Feast of Unleavened Bread instituted by the Lord. The purpose of the feast was to remind the people—and future generations—of what the Lord had done in suddenly bringing them out of a 430 year bondage.
Sometimes, we get very impatient waiting for the fulfillment of a promise the Lord has given. But generally, when He moves, it’s “suddenly.” In those times, you may have really had your mouth set for that fluffy yeast roll. But, when the Lord is in the process, make no mistake, you will be satisfied with His flatbread. In this case, the yeast represents your carnal desires and/or plans. Let them go. Eat the Lord’s wonderful rolled sandwich!
For today let us discover what Moses discovered:
God’s bread doesn’t need your yeast.
- araratchurch
- Jul 12, 2022
- 3 min read
“And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you.”
Exodus 12:22-23 NKJV
When I was born, in order to save my life, they removed all of my own blood, replacing it with a transfusion. As a matter fact, the blood they gave me to stop the reaction in my body that was killing me, came from a far distance to where I was born. Needless to say, blood is important.
Even an in-depth study of blood may leave you with more questions than answers. Blood is quite a phenomenon; and indeed, most creatures on earth have blood (although not all blood is red).
Interestingly, when the Lord gave the command to Noah that he and his family could now eat animals, as well as the green herbs, He forbade the eating of flesh with the blood still in it.
Additionally, the Levitical law codified this command:
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.’ Therefore I said to the children of Israel, ‘No one among you shall eat blood, nor shall any stranger who dwells among you eat blood.’”
Leviticus 17:11-12 NKJV
As you can see, the reason the Lord gave for such a command was the fact that “the life…is in the blood.”
As well, we see the Lord saying that the blood makes atonement for the soul. We see this concept repeated in the book of Hebrews.
“And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.”
Hebrews 9:22 NKJV
Jesus, in His last meal with the disciples (before His crucifixion), made clear that it would be His blood that would seal the New Covenant and provide for the atoning of our sins:
“Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”
Matthew 26:27-28 NKJV
Today we find Moses being instructed by the Lord as to what the people should do to prevent the destroyer from killing the first born in their families. This command would lead to the Feast of Passover and points directly to what our Savior would do for us.
To be honest with you, I don’t fully understand all of the mysterious significance of the blood. All I know is that the shed blood of Jesus Christ has made all the difference for us!
“For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
Hebrews 9:13-14 NKJV
For today let us discover what Moses discovered:
There is power in the blood.