Month: January 2026

Exodus 17:13So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.

I coordinate a daily devo reflection for my church, and our theme for next week is “When we mess up, just begin again.” I’m not usually one to do that. I typically beat myself up with the “coulda, woulda, shoulda”s, armchair quarterbacking until I just feel like giving up. I expect I’m not alone in this tendency.

Exodus 17:14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.”

But here’s the thing. We are all human. We all mess up. Even the folks in today’s victory tale: Joshua, Moses, Aaron. They are riding high here, but they have or will mess up (or mess up again) in the course of the Bible. Armchair quarterbacking to the point of giving up isn’t useful–to us or to God.

Exodus 17:15 Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner. 

Precious Savior, Thank You for the reminder that beating ourselves up for our shortcomings and failures will never help us to glorify You. When we mess up, as we inevitably will, help us to learn the lesson, dust ourselves off, and begin again in You. Help us, Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 17:16 He said, “Because hands were lifted up against the throne of the Lord, the Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.”

Have a blessed day.

Exodus 17:9 Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”

Commentary says that verse 9 is the first mention of Joshua in the Bible. He is a pretty central character in the Old Testament, so acknowledging this first mention feels appropriate. He spends his life serving God and Moses, though, of course, he messes up along the way. He is human after all.

Exodus 17:10 So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. 

Verse 12, for me, supports the fact that God created us for community, that He did not intend for us to carry the burdens of life alone. He intends for us to have others by our side–family, friends who are like family–to help us when our strength is waning. Aaron and Hur are part of that community for Moses. Moses is part of that community for Joshua.

Exodus 17:11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. 

Precious Savior, Thank You for the two big takeaways from today’s reading: 1. You created us to praise You, to serve You, but we are human and we will mess up along the way. Thank You for loving us anyway. 2. You created us for community–community by birth, by our own creation, or a combination of the two. Thank You. Help us to find our community and to stand in the gap for each other daily. Amen.

Exodus 17:12 When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.

Have a blessed day. 

Exodus 17:5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.

I believe that verse 7 is the heart of the Israelites’ problem during the exodus: “Is the Lord among us or not?” Perhaps they thought that life would be easy if the Lord led them out of Egypt, that a life “with the Lord” meant a life without worry or stress. Clearly, that’s not the way God works.

Exodus 17: 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 

That process of wrestling with our faith is one that we all go through, it’s that process of going from the faith of our parents to the faith we embrace. “Is God with me as He promised? And if He IS, why does this situation still feel so bad/scary/painful/etc?” The process of resolving those questions is a difficult one, but it leads to a more personal, active faith. 

Exodus 17:7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Precious Savior, the question of whether or not You are with us is one that we will all face at one time or another. Thank You for Your love and compassion as we wrestle with such a difficult, personal question. Thank You for Your fierce love, even in our struggle. Help us, Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 17:8 The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim.

Have a blessed day. 

Exodus 17:1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 

Change is hard. To leave a situation you understand, that you have figured out how to work within, only to encounter unknown trials, is difficult, and anger is a much easier emotion to deal with than fear. I’m honestly not surprised by the Israelites’ reactions here.

Exodus 17:2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”

But Moses, his reaction is the one to watch. He takes his frustration to the Lord instead of turning it onto the Israelites. He turns to prayer and then puts God’s answer into practice. 

Exodus 17:3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

Precious Savior, I can relate to so much in this passage–feelings of fear, irritation, uncertainty, anger. Like the Israelites, I tend to grumble when I feel that unsettling mix of emotions. Help me be more like Moses, bringing my frustrations and fear to You alone. Help me, Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 17:4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

Have a blessed day. 

Exodus 16:32 Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the wilderness when I brought you out of Egypt.’ ”

My faith cannot sustain my children, but it does provide them a firm foundation. They certainly have a good idea of what the hubs and I believe, who Jesus is to us, but there will come a time when they have to question and assess and explore and figure out what they believe, who Jesus is to them. 

Exodus 16:33 So Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put an omer of manna in it. Then place it before the Lord to be kept for the generations to come.”

God, Jesus, His love and provision, mercy and grace is known to them but is not yet theirs. Our faith in Jesus can only take them so far. They have to make it their own. 

Exodus 16:34 As the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron put the manna with the tablets of the covenant law, so that it might be preserved. 

Precious Savior, Thank You for the foundation of faith that parents provide for their children, for the God stories that we pass down so that they can see the role You have played in our lives. Be with them as they grow and mature and make our faith their own. Help them to trust the foundation we have laid and to know that You are with them, always, that You love them, fiercely and completely. Amen.

Exodus 16:35-36 The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan. (An omer is one-tenth of an ephah.)

Have a blessed day. 

Exodus 16:24 So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. 

I have a deep need to understand things. If you do something differently than I do, I’m probably going to ask you about it. The intent is not to imply that my way is best. The intent is to understand your way and to see if I should be doing things differently. I think a lot of people misunderstand my intentions when it comes to this tendency.

Exodus 16:25 “Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a sabbath to the Lord. You will not find any of it on the ground today. 

Commentary implies that those who are surprised when the double portion gathered on Saturday doesn’t stink or get maggots (unlike what happened in verse 20) and those who go out to gather on Sunday (even though the Lord said there would be no manna) were not trusting God, that they had to personally experience it to take it as truth. Maybe they were just trying to understand. 

Exodus 16:26 Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”

Precious Savior, You created me exactly as I am, curious and inquisitive, tender-hearted, enthusiastic, compassionate, a little awkward, hitting every single high and low in life. Help me to love myself as You created me and to use who I am to bring You glory. Help me to accept others as they are as well. Amen.

Exodus 16:27 Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none.

Have a blessed day. 

Exodus 16:20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.

Commentary says of verse 20, “The bad experience of their disobedience led them reluctantly to obedience.” In the parenting world and the real world, that’s called natural consequences–as in this is just the real-world consequence when you make the choices you’ve made (as opposed to “You are grounded because of the choices you’ve made”).

Exodus 16:21 Each morning everyone gathered as much as they needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away. 

We make decisions every day, and every decision comes with a natural consequence. Not all natural consequences are bad, and some are so much worse than others. But the math of “Should I do this or should I not? Is it worth whatever the consequence?” is the mathematics of life. 

Exodus 16:22 On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much—two omers for each person—and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. 

Precious Savior, Thank You that You do not want automatons who follow You because we have no choice. You want us to choose You. Daily. I think it hurts Your heart when we make bad choices, choices where the natural consequences hurt us. Thank You for not turning Your back on us, no matter how stubborn we are, no matter how poor our choices. Help us to make good choices today. Amen.

Exodus 16:23 He said to them, “This is what the Lord commanded: ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of sabbath rest, a holy sabbath to the Lord. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.’ ”

Have a blessed day.