I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.

     Today’s passage starts off with a change in tone. Up until now, it has read that Pharaoh hardened his heart and refused to let the people of Israel go to worship their God. Today’s passage starts with God telling Moses that He has hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Pharaoh’s officials tell him that he must let the people of Israel go and worship their God. One of the things I have not touched on in these devotions has been that Moses was asking Pharaoh to allow the Israelites to take a three day trip into the desert to offer a sacrifice to God and Pharaoh was categorically refusing. In today’s passage Pharaoh asks Moses who would be going on this religious retreat. Moses’ answer is “all of the Israelite people, men, women and children, and all of their flocks. Pharaoh responds by saying that he would approve a religious retreat of just the men because the only reason for the women and children (and the flocks) to go would be because they were planning on attacking the Egyptians (or some other mischief against the Egyptians).
     God instructed Moses to stretch out his hand over Egypt and summon locust swarms over the entire land. Moses did this and the locusts ate every bit of greenery left on any of the plants in Egypt. Pharaoh begged Moses to pray to God that God remove the locusts from the land. Moses did so and a wind arose and blew the locusts out of the land. However, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart(note that this time Pharaoh did not harden his own heart, God did it for him this time) and he did not let the people go. This was followed by a plague of darkness over the land, after which Pharaoh was willing to let all of the people go as long as they left their flocks. Moses rejected this on the basis that they needed to take something to sacrifice to God and would not know what they needed until they got there. Pharaoh told Moses to get out of his sight and if he ever returned Pharaoh would have him executed.
      Moses accepted Pharaoh’s exile, but before he left Moses told Pharaoh that God was going to bring one more plague against Egypt. God would pass through Egypt and every firstborn son in the land of Egypt would die, from the nobles to the slaves, even including the livestock. However, the people of Israel would be exempted from this plague. God then gave Moses instructions for the people of Israel establishing the Passover meal. They were to eat it in haste, prepared to flee. On the night designated for them to observe this, God would pass through the land striking the firstborn of both people and animals in all of the land of Egypt, except in those households that were marked according to His instruction. Every time I read this, I wonder, how many people who considered themselves Egyptian, and had been considered Egyptian by their neighbors joined in this first Passover celebration? As the plagues came down on Egypt one by one and the Israelites were, for the most part, spared, how many Egyptians circumcised their sons? Probably not many, but there were probably a few who saw the power of God and wanted to join with His people.
     The one point I wanted to make about this was that I don’t want to ever get to the point where God starts hardening my heart as He did to Pharaoh. Pharaoh time after time promised that if God would relieve the misery he was suffering, he would do God’s will, only to renege once the suffering had stopped. Eventually God started hardening Pharaoh’s heart rather than wait for Pharaoh to do so himself.

     In today’s parable Jesus tells a story about a man who hires day laborers. He hires some first thing in the morning, agreeing to pay them a standard day’s wages. Later he goes out and hires some more, agreeing to pay them what is “right”. He does this several more times throughout the day, hiring some late in the day shortly before the workers wrapped up for the day. Once the workers were done for the day, he had them line up to be paid, with those hired last going first. He paid these men a full day’s wages. Those who had been hired first thing in the morning expected to be paid more, when he paid them only the agreed upon amount they grumbled. Doesn’t that sound exactly like the way we would react? The employer asked the grumbling workers how he had wronged them? He had paid them the amount that was agreed upon. What business of theirs was it if he chose to pay the others the same amount? It was his money to do with as he chose. He then tells His disciples that the last will be first and the first will be last, continuing the them from yesterday’s passage.
     There are so many lessons in that parable. There are the two obvious ones. The first shall be last and God will reward even those who come to Him late in life with the same reward He offers those who choose Him early in life (although I believe there is also the reward of serving God, which the latter will have more opportunity to do). But there is also the lesson of not begrudging others their good fortune. Why do we feel envious and resentful when others receive good things? Finally there is the idea that the vineyard owner was not obligated to be “fair” in the way he distributed his wealth.
     Jesus predicts His death for at least the third time in today’s passage. Despite the fact that Jesus had predicted His death multiple times, the disciples were still caught off guard when it actually happened. It’s as if they didn’t want to believe He meant what He said about His death. /s How often do we misinterpret something in Scripture because we don’t want to believe what it says? Often times we don’t even realize we are doing it.
     Today’s passage ends with the story of the mother of James and John coming to Jesus and asking Him to promise to seat her two sons on either side of Him when He comes into His kingdom. Jesus asks the brothers if they can face the trials He is about to face. They answer in the affirmative. Jesus tells them that they will indeed face a similar fate, but He cannot promise them those places of honor because those places are reserved for those whom the Father has already chosen. The other disciples were offended that the two brothers had the audacity to get their mother to ask for that honor. Jesus calls them together and gives them a lesson that sums up the points that were being made in the stories over the last several passages. Jesus tells the disciples that the important people of this world lord it over others, giving orders and being served, but that is not how it works in the kingdom of heaven. It is those who serve who are important in the kingdom of heaven. If you want to be someone in the kingdom of heaven, you must do what others tell you and serve their needs. This is a tough lesson for us as humans, even when we get it, we often mess it up. There have been a couple times when I have been part of a Church body where several people were competing to be serve others more than anybody else. We should strive to serve others, but sometimes the way we can best serve others is by letting them serve us.

     I strive to follow the example of the psalmist and put my trust in God. If I follow the path that He teaches me, He will not let me be put to shame and will not let my enemies triumph over me. If I humble myself before God and acknowledge that His ways are correct, even when I do not understand why, He will instruct me in the actions I should choose and forgive my many sins. It is very hard to trust God, I so very often think I see an easier way, but I have learned that in the long run it is always better to do things the righteous way (although even knowing better I still all too often choose the wrong way).

     In today’s passage the writer recommends that we observe the ways of the ant. The fact that it gathers food and provisions all summer and into the harvest even though it has no ruler should be a lesson to us to prepare for the future when we may no longer be able to supply our needs.