Against All Odds - Himalayan Heights – May 1 Readings: Hebrews 11:23-29 – Moses

 Hebrews 11 - The Hall of Faith

All Scripture is God-breathed and useful, but there are some Scriptures that we can consider the Himalayan mountaintops of the Bible. In the next few months, we will be looking at a series of great texts that inspire and move us - the "Himalayan Heights" of God's Word.

Today's Reading:  Hebrews 11

If you have time, read the entire chapter, Hebrews 11. Our key passage today is verses 23-29, and you should spend time focusing and meditating on those verses.

23 By faith Moses, after he was born, was hidden by his parents for three months, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they didn’t fear the king’s edict. 24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter 25 and chose to suffer with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasure of sin. 26 For he considered reproach for the sake of Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, since he was looking ahead to the reward. 

 27 By faith he left Egypt behind, not being afraid of the king’s anger, for Moses persevered as one who sees him who is invisible. 28 By faith he instituted the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch the Israelites. 29 By faith they crossed the Red Sea as though they were on dry land. When the Egyptians attempted to do this, they were drowned.

Through the Bible Readings: 1 Samuel 21-22, Luke 19:28–48, Psalm 55:5–11, Proverbs 12:3-4

If you wish to read through the Bible in a year, follow these readings. 

Devotional: Against All Odds

Do you ever feel as though the odds are never in your favor?

Think about the life of Moses, the deliverer of Israel. He was born when the Pharoah had decreed that all Hebrew baby boys were to be put to death - he had a prenatal death sentence. When he was forty, he chose to identify himself with the people of God instead of enjoying the pleasures and privileges of life as Egyptian royalty. He was forced to flee Egypt because of a poor choice he made to kill an Egyptian and spent 40 years in the wilderness. His life was wasted and he was destined to die as a useless shepherd in Midian, until one day he saw God in a burning bush. He went back to Egypt, one lonely man, to face down the most powerful man in the world and demand that his people be freed. Talk about impossible! Ten plagues later he led them out only to be trapped by Pharoah's angry armies at the Red Sea. Again, when things looked absolutely impossible, God made a way and the people went through on dry ground.

Moses face the impossible time after time and by walking in faith, he saw God bring him through. He had seen it repeatedly so he was able to say to the Israelites, "Stand still and see the salvation of God."

His impossible circumstances were not mirages nor were they a lack of positive thinking. They were genuinely impossible. Pharaoh was genuinely killing Hebrew babies and he was genuinely a lonely shepherd in the desert and he was one man against the world's most powerful army and, most starkly, there was no hope for Israel with their backs against the Red Sea. He was destined to fail, destined to die, destined to ignominy.

Except for his faith in God. Not positive thinking or motivation or organization. Faith. He trusted God enough to obey God regardless of the circumstances and God came through. When God said go to Egypt, he went to Egypt. When God said speak to Pharaoh, he spoke. He went where God told him to go, he did what God told him to do, and he said what God told him to say. He believed God and God was faithful.

Are there difficult or impossible circumstances in your life? Know that nothing that is going on in your life is a threat to God. The God who spoke the world into creation, who freed Israel and parted the Sea - that God is able to handle anything that is going on in your life. Just trust him. Walk in faith and obedience to God's word and to the Spirit of God. Go where he sends you. Do what he calls you to do. Speak his truth. And the God who sustained and used Moses will see you through.

I was thumbing through an old Bible that I hadn't used in many years. In the blank pages in the front of the Bible, I had written down 3 impossible situations in my life, crises I saw no solution for at the time I wrote them in that Bible. Years later, I realized how God had worked in each of those situations and brought resolution. What was impossible to me was no challenge to God.

Trust and obey.

Father, I thank you that no matter what I am going through, I can trust you to sustain me and use me. I am thankful that what is impossible to me is not even hard for you. 

Think and Pray:

Are there challenges in your life, impossible situations that you are facing? Write them down and commit each one to God.
Remember, that the key to faith is OBEDIENCE! Trusting God means constant obedience, even when circumstances seem hard. Are you walking in obedience?
Can you think of an impossible situation from which God has given you deliverance in the past?