Sabbath: Rough Start
Daily Lesson for Sabbath 12th of July 2025
Image © Pacific Press
Read for This Week’s Study: Exodus 5:1-23, Revelation 11:8, Exodus 6:1-13, Psalms 73:23-26, 2 Corinthians 6:16, Exodus 6:28-30; Exodus 7:1-7.
Memory Text:
“Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.” ’ And Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go’ ” (Exodus 5:1-2, NKJV).
Many believers think that when one decides to follow God, he or she will experience only happiness, prosperity, and success. That’s not necessarily the case, however, as the Bible itself often shows. Sometimes many obstacles appear, as well as new difficulties. This can be very frustrating, and it prompts hard questions that don’t always have easy answers or, it seems, any answers at all.
Those who trust in God will face numerous trials. When we persevere, however, God brings solutions that come on His terms and in His time. His ways may conflict with our expectations for quick and instantaneous solutions, but we must learn to trust Him regardless.
Thus, the topic for this week: Moses and the command to lead God’s people out of Egypt—about as clear a call from God as anyone could have. Indeed, it included miracles, as well as God Himself speaking directly to Moses and letting him know exactly what He wanted Moses to do.
How much easier, then, could it have been for Moses, knowing that he had been called by God and even given a specific task?
It should have been simple then, right?
Read on.
*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, July 19.
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I'm new to be a Sabbath keeper and yes when I started doing this I faced so hardship, giving up the things I like doing like eating I used to like . Using my phone to watch movie and temptation for lust . But thanks to God I over this things.
We underestimate the difficulty Moses would have experienced in getting the Exodus going. The Hebrews had been been living in Egypt for 400 years and in that time would have lost much of their identity. We are inclined to think that they had kept to themselves and remained somewhat separate from the Egyptians. Remember that Joseph married Egyptian wives. His brothers had married into the nations that had surrounded them before they entered Egypt. So, over the years there was probably a fair bit of intermarriage, and with that, a loss of identity.
One needs to remember the Hebrews entered Egypt as privileged people. They were relatives of the Chief Executive Officer and would have had some respect. Over the 400 years, the relationship between the two ethnic groups would have waxed and waned depending on the changes in government. After all, if we look back 400 years, what has happened to us? I happen to have a couple of family documents that are 200 years old and I don't even know who the people mentioned in the documents are. They were ruled by King George III.
My point is that we need to understand that the group of oppressed people that Moses wanted to lead out of Egypt were less ethically homogenous than we sometimes imagine. They were oppressed, but like many slave-based economies of the ancient world, they were integrated into their society. Some of them would have held respectable positions.
Moses task was not easy. Trying to convince the Hebrews they would be better off in Canaan than staying in Egypt was going to be hard. I always have a little smile when I read later on when the Hebrews were complaining to Moses about the food on the journey:
(Imagine 40 years without onions!) Much of the difficulty Moses faced was convincing the Hebrews that leaving was a good idea.