Archive for category: GAMEtime Sharing

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Exodus 12:1-14.  Let’s go!

Exodus 12:1-14 (NIV)
1  The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt,
2  “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.
3  Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.
4  If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat.
5  The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.
6  Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.
7  Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.
8  That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.
9  Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire–head, legs and inner parts.
10  Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it…..

1. What is Passover?
Passover (or Pesach in Hebrew) is one of the most important festivals in the Jewish Calendar. It commemorates the freedom
of the Israelites after 400 years of slavery in Egypt.

2. When is Passover?
Passover falls on the 15th of the Hebrew month Nisan.

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Exodus 10:21-29.  Let’s go!

Exodus 10:21-29 (NIV)
21  Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt–darkness that can be felt.”
22  So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days.
23  No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.
24  Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, “Go, worship the LORD. Even your women and children may go with you; only leave your flocks and herds behind.”……

On verses 21-29:  Pastor Jon Courson of Applegate Christian Fellowship is a great Bible teacher whose insights into Scripture have inspired me over and over again.  Here is what Pastor Courson writes about Exodus 10:21-29, describing it like the latest round in a boxing match between Moses and Pharaoh:

Moses and Pharaoh had been duking it out, mixing it up, and sparring round after round…

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage: Exodus 9:13-26.  Let’s go!

Exodus 9:27-30 (NIV)
27  Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned,” he said to them. “The LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.
28  Pray to the LORD, for we have had enough thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don’t have to stay any longer.”
29  Moses replied, “When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the LORD. The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the LORD’s.
30  But I know that you and your officials still do not fear the LORD God.”

On verses 27-30:  Though in verses 27-28 Pharaoh says all the right words, confessing that he has sinned and admitting that the Lord is right and he was wrong, we will see that Pharaoh evidently was still playing games with the Lord.  Pharaoh wasn’t really sorry for his sin.  If anything, perhaps, he was sorry that he was in the situation he was now in and was doing everything he can to get out of it.  It goes to show that anyone can say that they have sinned and speak the right-sounding words, but what counts is what is in the heart.

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage: Exodus 9:1-12.  Let’s go!

Exodus 9:1-12 (NIV)
1  Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.”
2  If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back,
3  the hand of the LORD will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field–on your horses and donkeys and camels and on your cattle and sheep and goats…….

On verses 1-12:  The plagues seem to be getting worse in their severity.  Plagues 2 through 4 consisting of the frogs, the gnats, and the flies were probably minor irritations compared plague 5 where God starts hitting the Egyptians’ bank accounts by killing off their livestock as well as plague 6 with the boils.  At this point you need to wonder what Pharaoh was thinking: the people he is leading are suffering greatly, so why does he not surrender to the Lord to save his own people?  It seems that Pharaoh would rather let his people suffer than swallow his own pride.  Beware of pride, for if we’re not careful, pride can cause us to make very foolish decisions that unnecessarily harm those we are called to protect. 

Also, another lesson we learn here is that the longer we delay in obeying God and the longer we keep playing games with Him, the more painful it gets for us and those closest to us.  We’re always better off obeying God earlier than later.

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Exodus 8:1-15.  Let’s go!

Exodus 8:1-6 (NIV)
1  Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.
2  If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs.
3  The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs.
4  The frogs will go up on you and your people and all your officials.'”
5  Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.'”
6  So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land.

On verses 1-6:  The ancient Egyptians worshiped Heket, who was known as the goddess of fertility and was represented by the frog.  Sculptures and paintings of Heket depict her with the face of a frog.  Apparently the worship of Heket informed the way Egyptians viewed sex and having babies.  By causing frogs to appear everywhere in Egypt – in people’s bedrooms and homes – and later causing the frogs to die in verse 13, the Lord was communicating that the Lord is far greater than Heket and that it is the Lord, not Heket, who reigns over the issues of sex and fertility.