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Lead Like Moses Devotional 47

by David Joynt on July 28, 2022


EXODUS 17:1-4 | 1From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do for this people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

Slavery is a social and political reality but also a psychological and personal one. Subject peoples are taught to see their world and their position in it as inevitable. They are made to feel helpless and disempowered. Education and advancement are withheld, and only servile submission is rewarded, while creativity or leadership is suppressed.

The status of untouchables in India is a prime example. For generations they felt undeserving and incapable of social and political participation. The Caste system was destiny and they were at the bottom of the system. Only in the last two generations has this shifted.

Freedom must be established with all its responsibilities—it requires us to see ourselves as capable of self-determination. Egypt was oppressive, but in some ways life was simpler for Israel there, where they had no say in their own destiny.

Pray for people who are subject to authoritarian rulers.

Tags: pray, authoritarian


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