March 25, 2021 CAC Living Water Devotional : Topic – NOURISHED, THOUGH ALIENATED!

By | March 25, 2021

March 25, 2021 CAC Living Water Devotional : Topic – NOURISHED, THOUGH ALIENATED!

 

Read previous CAC Living Water Devotionals here

LIVING WATER CAC DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE

Thursday, March 25, 2021 – International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery  and the Transatlantic  Salve Trade & International Day of solidarity with Detained and Missing Staff Members

NOURISHED, THOUGH ALIENATED!

Read: Exodus 17:1-7

Exodus 17:1-7 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.

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 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?”

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

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 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.

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?”

MEMORISE: 

Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law in the presence of God. (Exodus 18:12)

EXPOSITION

Every child of God who passes through the wilderness of life knows that it is a place of isolation, a place of loneliness, sometimes,  a place of lack and starvation. Nevertheless, as seen in Israel’s  wilderness experience,  there is no other better place for God’s people to enjoy closeness with God and divine provision like the wilderness. Of Course, the Israelites  would be in the best place to tell of what it means to be in slavery as they looked back to their experience in Egypt  on this International Day of Remembrance  of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic  Slave Trade.

In the wilderness, Yahweh led. Exodus wasn’t an easy experience for both of Egyptians and the Israelites because, as the Egyptians were mourning the deaths of their firstborns, so the Israelites were anxious about wandering in the wilderness. But in such a situation, it was comforting for the Israelites to know that they were not without divine direction (Exod.13:21-22; Psa.77:20;78:58). In that odd place called wilderness, God’s glory appeared! Isn’t that wonderful?

Moreover, in the wilderness Yahweh fed. It was sad that Israel remembered the wilderness as a place of murmur, protest, quarrelsomeness and dissatisfaction (Exod.16:3). Yes, there were life-giving resources in Egypt, such as water, onions, cucumbers, garlic, etc., But there was also slavery! However, despite the situation of emptiness in the wilderness, God’s glory appeared to bring fullness.

Know this: when you are in God’s place, no place is out of  place! Our Lord God is the transformer of situations! He turns death to  life, hunger to bread, thirst to water, and fear to trust (Exod. 14:10-14;1 Sam.2:5;Lk.1:53). If your wilderness is that which God has brought you into, He will see you through. You will lack nothing.

PRAYER POINTS

1. I praise You Lord for You are the Lord who transforms situations.

2. In my wilderness journey, I shall be fed and satisfied with the finest of wheat and honey from the Rock.

3. Pray for homes that are malnourished that God should raise helpers to meet their needs.

EXTRA READINGS FOR TODAY: Deuteronomy 14:22-17:11; Luke 1:78-2:19

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