DAY 31    Read Exodus 12 and 13.

Today's reading reaches the climax of Israel's conflict with Pharaoh--the solemn Passover and the triumphant Exodus.

Memory gem:  "When I see the blood, I will pass over you"  (Exodus 12:13).

Thought for today:
That dark night, the destroying angel entered every house in the land of Egypt that had no blood sprinkled over the door.  The firstborn of Pharaoh on the throne and the firstborn of the captive in the dungeon perished together.  One thing alone guided the angel of death in the dark and dreadful night, and that was the blood.  Where there was no blood, there was no salvation.  "When I see the blood, I will pass over you."

Some say that it doesn't make any difference whether we believe in the atonement or not, but look at the Israelites and the Egyptians.  It made a difference with them that Passover night.  Yes, the shed blood made a difference.  Christ is our Passover, the apostle says, "sacrificed for us"  (1 Corinthians 5:7).  Are we sheltered and shielded by the precious blood of the Lamb of God?  God says, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you."

How can I know that I am redeemed in Him?  Listen to the words of the apostle in Romans 8:1: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus."

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Difficult or obscure words:
Exodus 12:40.  "Four hundred and thirty years"--This period (see Galiatians 3:16, 17) includes 215 years between Abraham's call to leave Haran and Jacob's leaving Canaan to enter Egypt proper, plus 215 years between Jacob's migration and the Exodus.  No violence is done to the text in this calculation, because Canaan was part of the Egyptian Empire during the time.  Also the "fourth generation" (see Genesis 15:16) that would leave Egypt could not extend further than 215 years.  Moses was in the fourth generation of Levi's branch of Israelites.  See Exodus 6:16-20.
Exodus 13:18.  "Harnessed"--probably better: organized; certainly not equipped for battle.  Marginal reading: By five in a rank.

DAY 30    Read Exodus 9 through 11.

Today's reading:  The persistent refusal of Pharaoh to free Israel results in increasing intensity of the plagues on the unhappy land.

Memory gem:  "How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me"  (Exodus 10:3).

Thought for today:
Though the Egyptians had so long rejected the knowledge of God, the Lord still gave them opportunity for repentance.  In the days of Joseph, Egypt had been an asylum for Israel; God had been honored in the likeness shown His people.  Now the longsuffering One, slow to anger, and full of compassion, gave each judgment time to do its work.  The Egyptians, cursed through the very objects they had worshiped, had evidence of the power of Jehovah, and all who would, might submit to God and escape His judgments.  The bigotry and stubbornness of the king resulted in spreading the knowledge of God and prompted many of the Egyptians to give themselves to His service.

When the miracles were wrought before the king, Satan was on the ground to counteract their influence and to prevent Pharaoh from acknowledging the supremacy of God and obeying His mandate.  Satan wrought to the utmost of his power to counterfeit the work of God and resist His will.  The only result was to prepare the way for greater exhibitions of the divine power and glory and to make more apparent, both to the Israelites and to all Egypt, the existence and sovereignty of the true and living God. God delivered Israel with the mighty manifestations of His power and with judgments upon all the gods of Egypt.

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Difficult or obscure words:
Exodus 10:19.  "I will see thy face again no more"--not a promise or a threat, rather, a polite oriental expression meaning, "I will not ask for another interview."  Chapter 11 indicates (but does not specifically state) that Moses did see Pharaoh once more to deliver God's final warning message.

DAY 29    Read Exodus 6 through 8.

Today's reading:  The preliminary success of Egyptian magicians in counterfeiting the signs of Moses and Aaron performed encouraged Pharaoh to resist.  Soon, however, the magicians were forced to admit their inability to cope with God's power.

Memory gem:  "The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness"  (Exodus 7:16).

Thought for today:
There have been times in history when even doubters and opponents of God have to admit something beyond their own knowledge.  When Egypt was smitten by an ancient plague, the scientific brain trust of that time explained it all away until they finally came to a place where they could go no further.  Facts were too much for them.  No longer could they explain them away as magic.  "Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God"  (Exodus 8:19).

One can think of a dozen places in history where the whole world would have been different had men acted differently.  When asked by a news correspondent why the Italians were unsuccessful in landing on the Isle of Malta, Lt. Gen. Sir William Dobbie replied, "I believe it was God."

Why did Hitler not cross the English Channel when the way was open?  Why did Napoleon lose the Battle of Waterloo?  And so we continue to ask, on and on.  It is, as the poet declared:

Behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch above His own.
      ----James Russell Lowell

DAY 28    Read Exodus 3 through 5.

Today's reading recounts the experience of Moses in encountering the great I Am in a burning bush.  Forty years earlier he had tried to free Israel in his own strength.  Now he goes reluctantly in God's strength to confront cruel Pharaoh.

Memory gem:  "Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say"  (Exodus 4:12).

Thought for today:
The Lord asked Moses, "What is that in thine hand?"  (Exodus 4:2).  Of course God knew what was in his hand; He was merely drawing attention to it.  It was the staff or rod, the pastoral crook, which a shepherd always carried.

Now he is told to throw it down upon the ground.  He did so, and what happened?  It became a serpent, and Moses fled before it.  I do not blame him, do you?  Moses had been living in the wilderness for forty years, and he knew serpents.

Then came the command of God: "Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail"  (Exodus 4:4).

It would take considerable faith to unquestioningly obey the word of God, and to do it instantly.  To pick up an active, dangerous serpent by the tail is more easily said than done, more easily tried than accomplished.  The way to catch serpents, especially poisonous ones, is certainly not by the tail with a bare hand.  In the case of the large cobra, it would be suicide.  The serpent would turn on him like a flash.  Before he could even touch it, he would be fatally bitten.

God was testing Moses.  He was not playing with him.  He was testing him for leadership and also to reveal to Moses himself whether he had the requisites that God was looking for then and is still looking for in those who are to be spiritual leaders.

What had seemed a threat to the very life of Moses, when he acted in obedience to God, became a help, an instrument of deliverance and of victory as he faced the mightiest king in the world.  Whatever our opposition, however fierce and threatening the foe may be, by God's grace, may we also take it by the tail.  In other words, may God help us to meet the issue by faith, obedience, and courage, in Christ's holy name.

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Difficult or obscure words;
Exodus 3:22.  "Borrow"--better: ask.  God did not direct the Israelites to deceive the Egyptians.
Exodus 4:21. (and subsequent references).  "Harden"--God was saying that the signs and wonders would simply make Pharaoh more stubbornly set in his own chosen opposition.  Just as many statements say that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.  See Exodus 7:13, 14, 28; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7, 43, 35; 13:15.

DAY 27    Read 1 Chronicles 2; Exodus 1 and 2.

Today's reading takes up the history of Israel after the death of Joseph.  A new king, who did not know or who did not care to acknowledge Joseph, enslaves the numerous descendants of Jacob.  We read of Moses' birth, adoption, and eventual flight from Egypt.

Memory gem:  "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment"  (Hebrews 11:23).

Thought for today:
The greatest man of the Old Testament was doubtless Moses.  Think of Moses' mother.  She defied the bloody decree of Pharaoh to save her baby's life--hid him three months from the executioners sent out to destroy every boy baby of the Israelites.  When she no longer could hide him at home, she placed him in a little basketboat and hid him among the flags on the river's brink.

The Egyptian princess, divinely guided to the spot, discovered the baby.  Her heart was melted.  She determined to save him by adopting him as her son.  And his quick-witted sister, Miriam, as an interested bystander, said: "Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?"  And then she brought his own mother!  "Take this child away," commanded the princess, "and nurse it for me, and I will give you thy wages"  (Exodus 2:9).

"The lessons [Moses] learned at his mother's side could not be forgotten.  They were a shield from the pride, the infidelity, and the vice that flourished amid the splendor of the court.

"How far-reaching in its results was the influence of that one Hebrew woman, and she an exile and a slave!  The whole future life of Moses, the great mission which he fulfilled as the leader of Israel, testifies to the importance of the work of the Christian mother."--Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 244.

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Difficult or obscure words:
Exodus 1:9.  "More and mightier"--obviously an exaggeration by Pharaoh in order to justify extreme measures--not a factual statement.

DAY 26    Read Job 40 through 42; Psalms 111 and 112.

Today's reading concludes the story of Job and includes two psalms of praise.  These two psalms provide a fitting climax to Job's experience.

Memory gem:  "The Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends"  (Job 42:10).

Thought for today:
Job found his friends to be miserable comforters, but he found God a great comforter.  And his trust became so deep that he could endure all things and lay his burden upon the Lord.  What an example this is for us!

Many modern cities in our land are linked together by a chain of homes for the refuge of those who have been unfortunate and have fallen.  A while back the man whose generous gifts made these homes possible died in California, and his body was shipped by train across the country to New York for burial.  In every large city where it stopped, large groups of women and girls, with tears in their eyes and flowers in their hands, met the train.  What was back of his great gifts and wonderful deeds?  It is said that he had an only daughter who was the joy of his heart. Her laughter was the music of his soul, but the laughter ceased, and the music was gone.  There at her grave, the heartbroken father consecrated his life to Christ and gave his all--his wealth, his time, his influence, his strength--to a ministry of compassion to the homeless and unfortunate.  And so, out of his great loss came blessing to his own self and to the world.

Have you had disappointments?  Have you experienced eclipses of the sun of joy?  Have you had difficulties, heartbreak?  Let all these things lead you to Christ and His salvation.  Then as you pray for others, blessings will come to you and to them, and your latter days will be "the best of life, for which the first was made" (Robert Browning), as it was with Job.

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Difficult or obscure words:
Job 41:1.  "Leviathan"--possible crocodile, certainly not a whale, perhaps some monster now extinct.
Job 41:13.  "Double bridle"--a bridle that has two bits and four reins, or a Weymouth bridle.
Job 41:18.  "Neesings"--sneezings.

DAY 25    Read Job 36 through 39.

Today's reading:  God answers the wordy arguments of these five men: Job, his three friends, and the young man Elihu.  God shows how slight is man's wisdom compared to the mighty Creator's power.

Memory gem:  "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding"  (Job 38:4).

Thought for today:
Three thousand years ago we find God asking Job if he could do what God is doing every day.  He asked Job if he knew what God was doing to "bind the sweet influences of Pleiades" (Job 38:31), or "the cluster of the Pleiades" (RV), so holding them together as a unit.  This was an astronomical fact, but no one on earth knew it at that time, unless it was revealed to him by God.

What does science say today?  While most of the constellations are gradually drifting through space in different directions, and even changing their shape because of motions of which we know little, this is not true of the Pleiades.  Photographs now reveal at least 250 blazing suns in this cluster, all traveling together in a common direction, all sharing in a common motion and drifting through space together.

So, when you look up at the Pleiades tonight, just remember that they are preaching a mighty sermon.  They are pointing to the Creator of the universe, who is able to "bind the sweet influences of Pleiades" and keep them together through unimaginable ages as they sweep on in silence toward some common goal, or around some great center.

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Difficult or obscure words:
Job 39:9.  "Unicorn"--wild ox, not a horse with one horn.
Job 39:13.  "Peacock"--probably ostrich.

DAY 24    Read Job 32 through 35.

Today's reading introduces a fifth speaker, a younger friend who apparently had listened silently to the arguments of the older men awaiting a chance to express his opinions.

Memory gem:  "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting"  (Psalm 139:23, 24).

Thought for today:
At last, after a lengthy observation of the discussion between these men, a fourth friend, a young man named Elihu, arose and expressed his opinion to Job.  He showed Job that, instead of being a punishment for some special sin, afflictions are sometimes sent as a means of strengthening and purifying the children of God.  They are not the expression of an angry God, but the chastening of a loving Father.

So we see that Elihu was a man whom God could use to help Job and to make things clear in the minds of his three friends.  Job accepted that view.  And then the Lord Himself, speaking from the whirlwind, reproved Job for his murmurings and showed him that mortal man knows far too little to try to understand the mysteries of God's rule.

David Livingstone, the great explorer and missionary, had a secret sorrow.  His son, Robert, had never followed the right path, and he was unable to reach him.  The lad went to Boston, joined the Union Army in the Civil War, and at the age of nineteen died in battle on the field of Gettysburg.  Before his father knew of his death, he wrote to a friend about the great sorrow of heart caused by this son.  He spoke of this sorrow as the "secret ballast" which is often applied by God's hand when outsiders think we are sailing gloriously with the wind.  God holds us steady by this secret ballast of sorrow.

DAY 23    Read Job 28 through 31.

Today's reading:  Job delivers a lengthy defense of his innocence.  He recites in detail the kind of life he had lived before his afflictions struck him down.

Memory gem:  "No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies"  (Job 28:18).

Thought for today:
"God has placed you in a world of suffering to prove you, to see if you will be found worthy of the gift of eternal life.  There are those all around you who have woes, who need words of sympathy, love, and tenderness, and our humble, pitying prayers.  Some are suffering under the iron hand of poverty, some with disease, and others with heartaches, despondency, and gloom.  Like Job, you should be eyes to the blind and feet to the lame, and you should inquire into the cause which you know not and search it out with the object in view to relieve their necessities and help just where they most need help."--Testimonies, vol. 3, p. 530.

The merciful are 'partakers of the divine nature,' and in them the compassionate love of God finds expression.  All whose hearts are in sympathy with the heart of Infinite Love will seek to reclaim and not to condemn.  Christ dwelling in the soul is a spring that never runs dry.  Where He abides, there will be an overflowing of beneficence.

"To the appeal of the erring, the tempted, the wretched victims of want and sin, the Christian does not ask, Are they worthy? but, How can I benefit them?  In the most wretched, the most debased, he sees souls whom Christ died to save and for whom God has given to His children the ministry of reconciliation."--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 22

DAY 22    Read Job 22 through 27.

Today's reading probes still deeper into the problem of human suffering.  How will the true child of God relate to trials and difficulties?

Memory gem:  "He knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold"  (Job 23:10).

Thought for today:
One purpose for trouble coming to a Christian is to draw him nearer to God.  It was not until Job had lost everything he had and was worn out with sickness and trouble that he wanted to know God better.  It was when he was afflicted with boils that he cried out, "Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!....But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold"  (Job 23:3-10).

Trouble can make us depend upon God and not man.  Trouble makes us trust.  It was when the Flood came that Noah went into the ark.  David said that when he walked in the valley of the shadow, he knew God was with him (see Psalm 23:4).  And it is written of our Saviour that He learned obedience through the things that He suffered  (see Hebrews 5:8).

When you hear a man pray, you can usually tell whether he has ever had any trouble.  His prayer is not just a form of beautiful words--he is earnest.  By faith he takes hold of the mighty arm of God.  He is humble, for he knows his weaknesses.  He trusts God as he never could have trusted Him before he knew what trouble was.  One great preacher has said that the reason why women so often pray better than men is that they have had more trouble.

Many of the psalms of David are prayers.  They are among the mightiest prayers ever offered in this world.  And why do they still have such power?  Why do they so often express our own heart longings in better words than we can manage?  Well, for one thing, they are the prayers of a man who was acquainted with trouble.  He learned how to trust God in trouble, how to depend upon God.  And in Psalm 37:40 David says, "He shall...save them, because they trust in him."