you can't remain free and also be safe. This is the Lifespring One Year Bible Rewind and coming
to you from Riverside, California and podcasting since 2004. My name is Steve Webb and I'm your OG
Godcaster. This is the podcast that comes to you every day and we're reading the entire Bible
together in a year. I'm so glad you are here. It's good to see you. The website is lifespringmedia.com.
It's National Clean Out Your Computer Day.
It's time to organize our files, delete old downloads, and give our digital workspaces a fresh start.
But I gotta tell you, with somewhere around 65 terabytes of files here at LifeSpring Central,
a day wouldn't be near enough time to do that.
That's why I rely on a program that knows where all my data is.
All I have to do is give it an approximate file name,
and it'll tell me which of about 10 hard drives the file is in.
I couldn't function without it.
In case you're interested, it's called Neo Finder.
And no, I don't have an affiliate link.
This is also the Law Monday.
We'll read Exodus 13 through 16.
I'll have some comments after that.
And we'll have what I think is a very culturally significant on this date in church history.
Hang on.
Let's begin.
Our Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for your word.
And we thank you, Father, for giving us the ability to, in some small way, understand who you are.
You've given us that message so that we would know you.
And so, God, I pray that you would teach us more about yourself today.
I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Exodus chapter 13
The Lord said to Moses,
Dedicate all the firstborn males to me,
for every firstborn male Israelite and every firstborn male animal belongs to me.
Moses said to the people,
Remember this day, the day on which you left Egypt, the place where you were slaves.
This is the day the Lord brought you out by His great power.
No leavened bread is to be eaten.
You are leaving Egypt on this day, in the first month, the month of Abib.
The Lord solemnly promised your ancestors to give you the land of the Canaanites,
the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
When He brings you into that rich and fertile land,
you must celebrate this festival in the first month of every year.
For seven days you must eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there is to be a festival to honor the Lord.
For seven days you must not eat any bread made with yeast.
There must be no yeast or leavened bread anywhere in your land.
When the festival begins, explain to your sons that you do all this because of what the Lord did for you when you left Egypt.
This observance will be a reminder, like something tied on your hand or on your forehead.
It will remind you to continue to recite and study the law of the Lord,
because the Lord brought you out of Egypt by His great power.
Celebrate this festival at the appointed time each year.
The Lord will bring you into the land of the Canaanites,
which He solemnly promised to you and your ancestors.
When He gives it to you, you must offer every firstborn male to the Lord.
Every firstborn male of your animals belongs to the Lord,
But you must buy back from him every firstborn male donkey by offering a lamb in its place.
If you do not want to buy back the donkey, break its neck.
You must buy back every firstborn male child of yours.
In the future, when your son asks what this observance means, you will answer him,
By using great power the Lord brought us out of Egypt, the place where we were slaves.
When the king of Egypt was stubborn and refused to let us go,
the Lord killed every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both human and animal. That is why we
sacrifice every firstborn male animal to the Lord, but buy back our firstborn sons. This observance
will be a reminder, like something tied on our hands or on our foreheads. It will remind us that
the Lord brought us out of Egypt by His great power. When the king of Egypt let the people go,
God did not take them by the road that goes up the coast to Philistia, although it was the shortest way.
God thought, I do not want the people to change their minds and return to Egypt when they see that they are going to have to fight.
Instead, he led them in a roundabout way through the desert toward the Red Sea.
The Israelites were armed for battle.
Moses took the body of Joseph with him, as Joseph had made the Israelites solemnly promise to do.
Joseph had said, When God rescues you, you must carry my body with you from this place.
The Israelites left Succoth and camped at Etham on the edge of the desert.
During the day, the Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud to show them the way.
And during the night, He went in front of them in a pillar of fire to give them light,
so that they could travel night and day.
The pillar of cloud was always in front of the people during the day, and the pillar of fire at night.
Exodus chapter 14. Then the Lord said to Moses, Tell the Israelites to turn back and camp in front
of Pi-Hahirath, between Migdal and the Red Sea, near Baal-Ziphon. The king will think that the
Israelites are wandering around in the country and are closed in by the desert. I will make him
stubborn, and he will pursue you, and my victory over the king and his army will bring me honor.
Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. The Israelites did as they were told.
When the king of Egypt was told that the people had escaped, he and his officials changed their
minds and said, What have we done? We have let the Israelites escape, and we have lost them as
our slaves. The king got his war chariot and his army ready. He set out with all his chariots,
including the six hundred finest, commanded by their officers. The Lord made the king stubborn,
and he pursued the Israelites, who were leaving triumphantly. The Egyptian army, with all the
horses, chariots, and drivers pursued them and caught up with them where they were camped by
the Red Sea near Pi-Hahirath and Baal-Ziphon. When the Israelites saw the king and his army
marching against them, they were terrified and cried out to the Lord for help. They said to Moses,
Weren't there any graves in Egypt? Did you have to bring us out here in the desert to die?
Look what you have done by bringing us out of Egypt. Didn't we tell you before we left that
this would happen? We told you to leave us alone and let us go on being slaves of the Egyptians.
It would be better to be slaves there than to die here in the desert. Moses answered,
Don't be afraid. Stand your ground and you will see what the Lord will do to save you today.
You will never see these Egyptians again. The Lord will fight for you and all you have to do
is keep still. The Lord said to Moses, Why are you crying out for help? Tell the people to move
forward. Lift up your walking stick and hold it out over the sea. The water will divide, and the
Israelites will be able to walk through the sea on dry ground. I will make the Egyptians so stubborn
that they will go in after them, and I will gain honor by my victory over the king, his army, his
chariots, and his drivers. When I defeat them, the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.
The angel of God, who had been in front of the army of Israel, moved and went to the rear.
The pillar of cloud also moved until it was between the Egyptians and the Israelites.
The cloud made it dark for the Egyptians, but gave light to the people of Israel,
and so the armies could not come near each other all night.
Moses held out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind.
It blew all night and turned the sea into dry land.
The water was divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground,
with walls of water on both sides.
The Egyptians pursued them and went after them into the sea with all their horses, chariots, and drivers.
Just before dawn, the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army
and threw them into a panic.
He made the wheels of their chariots get stuck so that they moved with great difficulty.
The Egyptians said,
The Lord is fighting for the Israelites against us. Let's get out of here.
The Lord said to Moses, Hold out your hand over the sea, and the water will come back over the Egyptians and their chariots and drivers.
So Moses held out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the water returned to its normal level.
The Egyptians tried to escape from the water, but the Lord threw them into the sea.
The water returned and covered the chariots, the drivers, and all the Egyptian army that had followed the Israelites into the sea.
Not one of them was left.
But the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on both sides.
On that day the Lord saved the people of Israel from the Egyptians,
and the Israelites saw them lying dead on the seashore.
When the Israelites saw the great power with which the Lord had defeated the Egyptians,
they stood in awe of the Lord, and they had faith in the Lord and in his servant Moses.
Exodus chapter 15
Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord.
They said, I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted.
He has thrown the horse and its rider into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and my song.
He has become my salvation.
This is my God, and I will praise him.
My father is God, and I will exalt him.
The Lord is a warrior.
Yahweh is his name.
He threw Pharaoh's chariots and his army into the sea.
The elite of his officers were drowned in the Red Sea.
The floods covered them.
They sank to the depths like a stone.
Lord, your right hand is glorious in power.
Lord, your right hand shattered the enemy.
You overthrew your adversaries by your great majesty.
You unleashed your burning wrath.
It consumed them like stubble.
The waters heaped up at the blast of your nostrils.
The currents stood firm like a dam.
The watery depths congealed in the heart of the sea.
The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil.
My desire will be gratified at their expense.
I will draw my sword, my hand will destroy them.
But you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them.
They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
Lord, who is like you among the gods?
Who is like you, glorious in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders?
You stretched out your right hand, and the earth swallowed them.
You will lead the people you have redeemed with your faithful love.
You will guide them to your holy dwelling with your strength.
When the people's here, they will shudder.
Anguish will seize the inhabitants of Philistia.
Then the chiefs of Edom will be terrified.
Trembling will seize the leaders of Moab.
The inhabitants of Canaan will panic, and terror and dread will fall on them.
They will be as still as a stone because of your powerful arm until your people pass by, Lord,
until the people whom you purchased pass by. You will bring them in and plant them on the
mountain of your possession. Lord, you have prepared the place for your dwelling. Lord,
your hands have established the sanctuary. The Lord will reign forever and ever.
When Pharaoh's horses with his chariots and horsemen went into the sea,
The Lord brought the waters of the sea back over them, but the Israelites walked through the sea
on dry ground. Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine in her hand,
and all the women followed her with their tambourines and danced. Miriam sang to them,
Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. He has thrown the horse and its rider into the sea.
Then Moses led Israel on from the Red Sea, and they went out to the wilderness of Shur.
They journeyed for three days in the wilderness without finding water.
They came to Merah, but they could not drink the water at Merah, because it was bitter.
That is why it is named Merah.
The people grumbled to Moses,
What are we going to drink?
So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree.
When he threw it into the water, the water became drinkable.
He made a statute and ordinance for them at Merah, and he tested them there.
He said, If you will carefully obey the Lord your God, do what is right in His eyes, pay
attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, I will not inflict any illnesses
on you that I inflicted on the Egyptians, for I am Yahweh who heals you.
Then they came to Elam, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy date palms, and
they camped there by the waters.
Exodus chapter 16.
The entire Israelite community departed from Elam and came to the wilderness of Zin,
which is between Elam and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left the land of Egypt.
The entire Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
The Israelites said to them,
If only we had died by the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt,
when we sat by pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted.
Instead, you brought us into this wilderness to make this whole assembly die of hunger.
Then the Lord said to Moses, I am going to rain bread from heaven for you.
The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day.
This way I will test them to see whether or not they will follow my instructions.
On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.
So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites,
This evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
In the morning you will see the Lord's glory, because he has heard your complaints about him.
For who are we that you complain about us?
Moses continued,
The Lord will give you meat to eat this evening, and more than enough bread in the morning.
For he has heard the complaints that you are raising against him.
Who are we? Your complaints are not against us, but against the Lord.
Then Moses told Aaron, Say to the entire Israelite community, Come before the Lord, for he has heard your complaints.
As Aaron was speaking to the entire Israelite community, they turned towards the wilderness, and there in a cloud the Lord's glory appeared.
The Lord spoke to Moses, I have heard the complaints of the Israelites.
Tell them, At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will eat bread until you are full.
Then you will know that I am Yahweh your God. So at evening quail came and covered the camp.
In the morning there was a layer of dew all around the camp. When the layer of dew evaporated,
there were fine flakes on the desert surface, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites
saw it, they asked one another, What is it? because they didn't know what it was.
Moses told them, It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.
This is what the Lord has commanded.
Gather as much of it as each person needs to eat.
You may take two quarts per individual, according to the number of people each of you has in his tent.
So the Israelites did this.
Some gathered a lot, some a little.
When they measured it by quarts, the person who gathered a lot had no surplus,
and the person who gathered a little had no shortage.
Each gathered as much as he needed to eat.
Moses said to them,
No one is to let any of it remain until morning.
But they didn't listen to Moses.
Some people left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and smelled.
Therefore Moses was angry with them.
They gathered it every morning.
Each gathered as much as he needed to eat, but when the sun grew hot, it melted.
On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much food, four quarts apiece,
And all the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses.
He told them, This is what the Lord has said.
Tomorrow is a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord.
Bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil,
and set aside everything left over to be kept until morning.
So they set it aside until morning, as Moses commanded,
and it didn't smell or have any maggots in it.
Eat it today, Moses said, because today is a Sabbath to the Lord.
Today you won't find any in the field.
For six days you may gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.
Yet on the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they did not find any.
Then the Lord said to Moses,
How long will you refuse to keep my commands and instructions?
Understand that the Lord has given you the Sabbath.
Therefore, on the sixth day, he will give you two days' worth of bread.
Each of you stay where you are.
no one is to leave his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day.
The house of Israel named the substance manna. It resembled coriander seed, was white,
and tasted like wafers made with honey. Moses said, This is what the Lord has commanded.
Two quarts of it are to be preserved throughout your generations, so they may see the bread I fed
you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt. Moses told Aaron, Take a
container and put two quarts of manna in it. Then place it before the Lord to be preserved
throughout your generations. As the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron placed it before the testimony to be
preserved. The Israelites ate manna for 40 years until they came to an inhabited land. They ate
manna until they reached the border of the land of Canaan. Two quarts are a tenth of an ephah.
Beloved, I think we can say that the Israelites wanted safety.
They wanted to be taken care of, even if that meant they'd have to stay in slavery.
We saw this in Exodus 14.
But you can't remain free and also be safe.
If you want to be safe, you'll have to give up your freedom.
But you say, Steve, aren't we supposed to be slaves to Christ?
Yes, that's true.
But his is the only yoke that is light, and in him we have freedom from slavery to sin.
God is love, and being a slave to him is not the same as being a slave to any other person or entity or anything or anyone else.
In him is absolute freedom to be who he created you to be.
In verse 31 of Exodus 14, we're told,
When the Israelites saw the great power with which the Lord had defeated the Egyptians,
they stood in awe of the Lord, and they had faith in the Lord and in his servant Moses.
But in chapter 15, starting at verse 22, we see that they soon began complaining.
When they had been in the desert for three days and found no water, we're told in verse 24,
the people complained to Moses and asked, what are we going to drink?
So Moses prayed and God showed him a piece of wood, which he threw into the water and
it became fit to drink.
And then two and a half months after they'd been delivered from Egypt, they complained
again in chapter 16 about food.
And that's when the Lord provided quail and manna.
Note that even though God provided, there were some that did not follow the rules about
how much manna they were to gather.
So God provides, and we still grumble.
We are a forgetful, ungrateful lot, aren't we?
God provides clothes, and when a new fashion trend comes around, we become dissatisfied
with what we have.
God provides a place to live, and we become dissatisfied with the neighborhood.
We want a bigger house and a nicer neighborhood.
God provides transportation, a car or whatever.
And when a new model comes out, we just have to have the newer, shinier, faster car.
God provides a spouse, and we become impatient with their idiosyncrasies.
God provides a church, and we soon don't like the pastor or the people.
Why do we do that?
What is it about us that makes us so ungrateful?
I don't think there's an easy answer to that, but I think part of it is that we get our eyes off of God.
We instead focus on our situation instead of Him.
I believe that this is one reason we're told in Hebrews 10.24,
and let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works,
not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do,
but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
Beloved, our worship services are supposed to be where we encourage one another and remind
ourselves what the Lord has done. We need to develop friendships with other believers and
bear one another's burdens, as it says in Galatians 6.2. We are a prideful, forgetful lot.
That's why so many that fall away from regular fellowship with our brothers and sisters
soon fall away from God. They think that they're able to stand on their own,
but none of us can sustain as an island.
The Lord never intended us to live in a cocoon,
but He does say the phrase,
fear not, more than any other phrase in the Bible.
Your life is in His hands.
Your days are in His hands,
and nothing is going to change that.
He will call you home on His appointed day,
not a day sooner, not a day later.
Live the life that He's called you to, and fear not.
What do you think?
Comment on the show at comment.lifespringmedia.com or email me at steve at lifespringmedia.com.
And if you comment on the show notes page for this episode, maybe you can get a conversation
started with other commenters. We all want to hear from you. Tomorrow, our reading is 2 Samuel 1-4.
Today's verse of the day is Exodus 15-18. It's a short one.
The Lord will reign forever and ever.
That's it.
Exodus 15, 18.
Commenting on last Friday's episode, S3E 110 on Jeremiah 17 through 21, where I talked
about the scourge of abortion, Joy Kurtz sent this comment in.
She said, yes, we need to lift the name Jehovah Jireh for deliverance from our sin of killing
innocent babies.
Amen, Joy.
Amen.
Thank you for sending that in.
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I've got some people to thank today.
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They sent in their monthly $77.33 donation.
So thank you so much, Anonymous.
God bless you.
I really appreciate you.
And Minion's average daily boost is around 300 sats now.
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Much appreciated.
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Jamie, thank you so much.
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God bless you.
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On this date in church history, February 9th.
On February 9th, 1555, the city of Gloucester, England was lit by the fires of martyrdom.
But 400 years later, on that same date in 1964, a different kind of fire swept through America,
one that didn't take lives but arguably changed the American church forever.
So let's talk about what happened in 1555.
On this cold February morning in Gloucester, England, Bishop John Hooper was burned at the stake.
He was a central figure in the English Reformation and was a man of radical conviction
who often clashed with his peers, stripping away what he called the, quote,
trappings of potpourri, unquote. When Queen Mary I took the throne and attempted to restore Roman
Catholicism, Hooper refused to recant his Reformed beliefs. His death became a defining moment of
Protestant resilience, cementing the theological identity of the Church of England for generations
to come. And now, what happened on this date in 1964? I was nine years old, and while it may seem
like a purely secular event, the Beatles' first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show really marked
a seismic shift for the American church. As 73 million people tuned in, 40% of the entire country,
the cultural center of gravity, shifted. For generations, you see, Sunday night belonged to
churches. They called it sometimes the gospel hour, and it belonged to youth fellowship,
which happened on Sunday nights as well. It was the second service that defined the week.
But that night, pastors across the country looked out at a sea of empty wood and hushed sanctuaries.
One Midwest pastor recalled a jarring silence of his youth hall that night, saying,
We usually had 40 teenagers for a Sunday night fellowship. That night, we had four. The rest
were at home, glued to a television set, worshiping at a different altar. A common refrain among the
older generation was captured by a teacher in a religious school who told her students,
the Beatles are a fad. You won't even hear their names in six months. I guess she was wrong. And
that sentiment was echoed in many sermons that month, characterizing the band as noise rather
than music. And in the Bible Belt, the reaction was often even more severe. One evangelist warned
his congregation, if our young people are more excited about four long-haired boys from Liverpool
than they are about the gospel of Jesus Christ, we have failed in our mission.
It wasn't until 1966 that John Lennon said that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus,
but the seeds were sown this night in 1964. Years later, reflecting on the shift,
one retired minister said, February 9th was the night we realized we no longer owned Sunday
evening. The world had moved into the living room and the church was left in the sanctuary.
Many historians say that the British invasion accelerated the decline of traditional Sunday evening worship services
as the glow of the television began to compete with the light of the sanctuary.
So, it wasn't just music. It was the medium.
The Beatles' arrival coincided with the moment television replaced the church as the primary hearth of the American home.
I'd love to hear what you have to say
comment on the show at comment.lifespringmedia.com
or email me at steve at lifespringmedia.com
I'll read some of your comments on the show
and I do really truly want to hear from you
and now until tomorrow
may God bless you richly
thank you so much for being here
I'm Steve Webb
bye
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The Lifespring One Year Bible Rewind is a Lifespring Media production
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