This year I switched from using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible reading to the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net”. I have now done this long enough to say that I am glad I made the change. I am firmly convinced that the One Year Bible Online is a great way to read through the Bible in a year. It breaks the parts of the Bible which can be a struggle to read into manageable portions. However, I think that the Daily Bible Reading Schedule I am using now is a better format for doing a daily Bible study.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 10-12.

    Every time I read through Exodus and read about the plagues I am struck by one progression which happens. For the first seven plagues the Bible tells us that Pharaoh was stubborn, or hardened his heart, or for some other reason changed his mind about letting the Israelites go. In those first seven cases, Pharaoh reached those decisions of his own volition. However, with the plague of locusts and the plague of darkness which followed it the Bible tells us that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. God took away Pharaoh’s volition. There is an important lesson here. God has given each and every one of us free will. However, if we reject God’s will long enough and often enough, we lose the ability to voluntarily do God’s will.

    The establishment of Passover reminds us of our need to be ready to follow God’s lead on a moments notice. When God tells us that it is time to move, we must be prepared to grab our things and go. We can look at the preparations to see that many of them are important to being ready to travel at a moment’s notice. First, the bread was prepared without yeast. Bread with yeast must be allowed to rest so that the yeast can cause it to rise. Bread dough without yeast travels better, keeps longer unbaked, and can be baked at whatever moment allows. Meat roasted over an open fire can more readily be eaten while on the move than boiled meat.