#23. Exodus 4-6 | I Will Be With You and Teach You What To Do

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This is a dwelling place

from Entrusted Ministries.

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I'm Stephanie Cock.

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This Saturday morning I'll be emailing

February's Bible reading plan.

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If you haven't signed up for our free

printable resources, I'll link that in

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the show notes in today's reading, there

is an abundance of evidence that this is

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a God who longs to dwell with his people

because this burning bush moment is so

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pivotal for what's going to happen over

the next several books of the Bible,

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i'm going to read a longer portion today,

but it's wholly worthy of our attention.

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As you listen, pay attention to

how many objections Moses has and

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which one most resonates with you as

you think about what your barriers

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are to fully obeying the Lord.

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We will begin in chapter three, verse 13.

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Then Moses said to God, if I come to the

people of Israel and say to them, the

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God of your fathers has sent me to you,

and they asked me, what is his name?

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What shall I say to them?

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God said to Moses, I am who I am.

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And he said, say this to the people

of Israel I am has sent me to you.

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God also said to Moses, say this

to the people of Israel, the Lord,

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the God of your fathers, the God of

Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the

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God of Jacob has sent me to you.

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This is my name forever, and thus I am to

be remembered throughout all generations.

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Go and gather the elders of Israel

together and say to them, the Lord, the

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God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,

of Isaac, and of Jacob has appeared

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to me saying, I have observed you and

what has been done to you in Egypt?

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And I promise that I will bring you

up out of the affliction of Egypt

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to the land of the Canaanites,

the Hittites, the Amorites, the

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parasites, the HIEs and the Jebusites.

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A land flowing with milk and honey.

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And they will listen to your voice and

you and the elders of Israel shall go

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to the King of Egypt and say to him.

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The Lord, the God of the

Hebrews has met with us.

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And now please let us go a three days

journey into the wilderness that we

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may sacrifice to the Lord our God.

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But I know that the King of

Egypt will not let you go unless

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compelled by a mighty hand.

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So I will stretch out my hand

and strike Egypt with all the

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wonders that I will do in it.

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After that, he will let you go.

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And I will give this people favor

in the sight of the Egyptians.

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And when you go, you shall not go empty.

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But each woman shall ask of her

neighbor and any woman who lives in

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her house for silver and gold jewelry

and for clothing, you shall put them

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on your sons and on your daughters,

so you shall plunder the Egyptians.

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And chapter four begins.

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Then Moses answered, but behold,

they will not believe me or listen

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to my voice for they will say,

the Lord did not appear to you.

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The Lord said to him,

what is that in your hand?

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He said, A staff.

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And he said, throw it on the ground.

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So he threw it on the ground and it

became a serpent, and Moses ran from it.

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But the Lord said to Moses, put out

your hand and catch it by the tail.

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So he put out his hand and caught

it, and it became a staff in his hand

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that they may believe that the Lord,

the God of their fathers, the God of

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Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God

of Jacob, has appeared to you again.

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The Lord said to him, put

your hand inside your cloak.

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And he put his hand inside his cloak

and when he took it out, behold

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his hand was lepers like snow.

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Then God said, put your

hand back inside your cloak.

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So he put his hand back inside his cloak

and when he took it out, behold it was

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restored like the rest of his flush.

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If they will not believe you, God

said, or listen to the first sign.

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They may believe the ladder sign.

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If they will not believe even these

two signs or listen to your voice, you

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shall take some water from the Nile

and pour it on the dry ground and the

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water that you shall take from the Nile

will become blood on the dry ground.

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But Moses said to the Lord, oh my Lord.

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I am not eloquent either in the past or

since you have spoken to your servant.

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but I am slow of speech and of tongue.

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Then the Lord said to him,

who is made man's mouth?

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Who makes him mute or

deaf or seeing or blind?

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Is it not?

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I the Lord.

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Now therefore go and I will be with your

mouth and teach you what you shall speak.

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But he said, oh my Lord,

please send someone else.

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Then the anger of the Lord was kindled

against Moses and he said, is there

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not Aaron, your brother, the Levite.

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I know that he can speak well.

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Behold, he's coming out to meet you

and when he sees you, he will be glad.

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In his heart, you shall speak to him

and put the words in his mouth and I will

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be with your mouth and with his mouth,

and will teach you both what to do.

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How did you do?

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Did you catch all five?

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God was truly patient with

Moses in this exchange,

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and we can all be grateful for that.

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My MacArthur commentary summarizes

Moses's five Excuses this way.

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First, Moses says, I am a nobody.

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God says I will be with you.

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Secondly, he objects, I'm not a

theologian, and God says I am.

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Third.

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Moses tells the Lord, I'm unconvincing,

and God says, I will make you convincing.

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Fourth, I'm not a preacher.

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God tells him I will be with your mouth

and will teach you what you shall speak.

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And fifth Moses says, I'm really

not interested, and God tells

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him, I'll send Aaron to help

you and teach you what to do.

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I would argue that the fifth objection

is really Moses speaking out of fear.

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We do wonder if perhaps Moses

had an issue with his speech.

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I've heard many pastors insinuate

this through the years as he does make

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an objection that he's not eloquent.

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But as I was reading in the book of

Acts earlier this year, I came across

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Stephen's speech in Acts seven.

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We're told Stephen was full

of the Holy Spirit and this

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is what he says about Moses.

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And Moses was instructed in all

the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he

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was mighty in his words and deeds.

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This is referring to Moses

before the burning bush moment.

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Let's remind ourselves that the

Bible is a progressive revelation.

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It seems that Stephen's speech indicates

that Moses was more eloquent than he gave

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himself credit for, but certainly he was

battling insecurity, and I can relate

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next.

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We must stop to meditate on three 14 when

God tells Moses, I am who I am, say to

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the people of Israel, I am has sent me

to you in the original Hebrew language,

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their alphabet did not have vowels.

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This name I am would've

been represented by YHWH.

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It's also known as the

Tetragrammaton, meaning four letters.

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And as the command is given in

Leviticus to not take the Lord's name

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in vain, the people became fearful

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that they were going to take it

in vain, and they decided to not

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even speak it out loud anymore.

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Therefore, it's difficult for us

to know exactly what vowel sounds

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would've filled those letters.

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it became replaced with the Greek

word add an I meaning master or Lord.

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And over time, they combined those

vowels with the Hebrew consonants,

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YHWH, and this created the word Jehovah,

but the name Jehovah was possibly

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formed as late as the 16th century.

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If you've ever wondered why certain

people are insistent that God

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be called Jehovah, that is why.

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But what's most important about this?

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Title I am.

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It means he is self-sufficient.

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He is not a created being.

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He relies upon nothing to be sustained.

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He always was, and he always will be.

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He is unlike anything

else in the universe.

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In these few letters, God

communicates fully that he is eternal.

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Set apart and holy.

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But it also reveals he has the

power to bring the Hebrews out

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of bondage, and Moses is still

fearful about what God is calling.

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Him to do in the process.

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In chapter four, there's a really odd

moment where Moses is on his way back

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to Egypt and it says The Lord met

him and sought to put him to death.

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But Zipporah, his wife, circumcised

her son and saved Moses' life.

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A few months ago, I had the

opportunity to sit under a brilliant

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Bible professor from Moody.

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I asked a question about spiritual

leadership and she used the

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example of Zipporah to say that

Zipporah took spiritual authority

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saving her husband's life.

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She explained that submission doesn't

mean that you don't have agency.

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God can use wives to convict challenge

and even sharpen their husbands.

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While we don't have the complete story

behind this, apparently Moses was not like

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Abraham who, when he was given the command

to circumcised, did it that very day.

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Moses has a heart for justice,

but it appears that his obedience

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is often reluctant and delayed.

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Moses and Aaron do go to Pharaoh and just

as God foretold, they are not successful.

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And this portion is exactly

what I needed today.

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I'm convicted that I was falling

into a counterfeit line of thinking

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that really isn't in scripture.

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I've been thinking if I obey the Lord in

what he calls me to, then he's gonna be

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like this holy steamroller going before

me, knocking down obstacles and providing

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a smooth path for me to obey him.

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But as I look at the past month of me

trying to honor the Lord in this project,

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that's certainly not what's happened,

but I can say he's been with me and he's

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making me more resilient in the obstacles.

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In the next episode, we'll look

at the systematic dismantling of a

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pantheon of Egyptian gods that the

one true God is going to defeat.

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We'll even talk about how

much archeological evidence

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there is for the Exodus.

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And I will tell you, there's even

evidence in hieroglyphics that could

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have pointed to this moment of Pharaoh

saying more bricks, less straw.

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You know?

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And I know that he's the God who

always was and who always will be.

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How can we not choose to dwell with him?

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Let's pray.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you

that when we look to your word,

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we see that you used fallen.

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Insecure people to

accomplish your purposes.

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Help us to lay all of our

vulnerabilities and weaknesses at

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your feet because you tell us, Jesus,

that your grace is sufficient for us.

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That when we are weak,

we can be strong in you.

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And that your power and your might

is what goes with us to accomplish

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your purposes on this earth.

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As Moses and Aaron join each other to go

before Pharaoh, I pray once again over

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the sibling relationships in our homes.

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I pray our kids would be unified to

bring you glory and that this would

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be their greatest aim and charge,

that they would be strengthened

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to follow after you together.

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And for those that do not have siblings.

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I pray they would sense your presence

all the more in your gracious

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but sufficient name we pray Jesus.

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Amen.