PRAY

Show me Your glory, I pray.
Exodus 33:18

“The Story of Us: The Exodus”. Stop and think about that for a moment. Let it sink in. The Exodus is your story and mine, the story of what God is doing in each of us!

From the first days of the Exodus the Lord commanded that the Exodus story be told again and again! The Lord commanded the Israelites to eat Passover and say: “It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt” (Exodus 13:8). In the Wilderness God commanded parents and grandparents to pass stories on to their children about God’s wondrous, saving acts: “Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when your rise” (Deuteronomy 6:7). The psalmist resolves to pass on to the next generation, the stories entrusted to them, “things that we have heard and known, that our ancestors have told us. We will not hide them from their children; we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders he has done” (Psalm 78:3-4).

Let’s take some time today to meet with God in our respective “tent(s) of meeting” by reading, reflecting and praying the psalmist’s memory of the Exodus story. During this time read and talk to God about what you see in Psalm 78:12-20:

In the sight of their ancestors he worked marvels
in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan. 
He divided the sea and let them pass through it,
and made the waters stand like a heap. 
In the daytime he led them with a cloud,
and all night long with a fiery light.
He split rocks open in the wilderness,
and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. 
He made streams come out of the rock,
and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
Yet they sinned still more against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the desert. 
They tested God in their heart
by demanding the food they craved.
They spoke against God, saying,
“Can God spread a table in the wilderness? 
Even though he struck the rock so that water gushed out
and torrents overflowed,
can he also give bread,
or provide meat for his people?”

This is the story of us!

REFLECT

• Are you at a place in the Wilderness where, like the Israelites, you are asking: “Can God spread a table in the wilderness…or provide meat for his people?” If you are, take a few moments to talk with God about it.

• What Wilderness experiences do you want to pass on to family and friends?