Exodus: Set us Free to Worship Thee

By Linda Valente

The main theme of this 90 day devotional on the book of Exodus is worship. To worship is to honor with love and submission. Worship is a matter of the heart expressed through a lifestyle of praising him. Worship is (but is more than) singing, clapping, and raising hands. Worship is a lifelong commitment to follow our Lord. Worship is for everyday life.

This devotional puts an emphasis on worship in giving the reader ideas for different ways to worship. For example, the first devotional is on immigrants/ illegal aliens. Reading this may spur you as an activist to seek justice for those who are unwanted, providing for them with hospitality. As a person of prayer you may intercede for the immigrants that you know personally.

The format of this devotional is set so that you, your family, or small group can read a portion of Exodus and/or a related scripture followed by a suggested worship format. The worship may be a prayer, music, an activity, or a piece of art to view. It may be a concept to study or a phrase to contemplate. Try out the different formats, listen to the Lord, and learn new ways to worship.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9798385004874

Linda Valente

Linda Valente is a retired family nurse practitioner and retired professor of nursing, Bradley University, Peoria, IL. Her assistant writer and husband Frank, who has a graduate degree in theology from Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL is a retired hospice/ hospital chaplain for Carle/Methodist in Peoria, Illinois. Linda and Frank were short term missionaries first with Wesleyan Native American Ministries and later with TEAM in Zimbabwe. They currently attend church at New Beginning Ministries of Peoria. Their son, David Valente, writer of poems in this devotional, has a graduate degree from Moody Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL. Paul Anderton, Linda’s father, was an artist for this book. Seth Anderton Peterson, age 10, is another family artist who lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

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Copyright © 2023 Linda Valente.

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This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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ISBN: 979-8-3850-0486-7 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-0487-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023916134

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/02/2023

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are taken from King James version of the Bible, public domain.

Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scriptures marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

CONTENTS

1. That foreign feeling

2. Delivery and Protection

3. Seven Women

4. Murder in the Sand

Poem: Super Hero

5. Praise and worship in the desert

6. Well Wishers

7. The Desert University

8. Slavery

9. Respond

10. Holy Ground

11. I AM

12. Slave Owners

13. Please send someone else

14. Family Reunion

15. Leadership

16. Marriage and the family

17. Circumcision

18. The Hard Heart

19. Miracles, signs, and wonders

20. The Plagues

21. What? When? Why? Where? Who?

22. Mighty Hand

23. Let My People Go

24. Passover

25. The Lamb

26. The Unleavened Basics,

27. Guidance

28. Panic

29. I’ve Got Your Back

30. Questions and Answers

31. How Awesome are Your Deeds

32. I will sing

33. The Lord Your Healer

Poem: Dark Night of The Soul

34. Grumbling

35. Glory For All

36. Morning by Morning

37. Come to the Water

38. Joshua

39. His banner over me is love!

40. Hospitality

41. Empowering leaders

42. Practice His Presence

43. Covenant

44. Two Commandments

45. One God

46. His Name

47. His Day

48. Honor your parents

49. Murder

50. Is adultery an unforgivable sin?

51. Stealing

52. The Lie

53. Covet

54. Altars

55. Servant slaves

56. Law of retaliation

57. Why these rules?

58. Widows and orphans

59. More rules

60. Celebrate

61. Angels

62. Blood

63. Contributions

64. The Ark

65. Mercy seat

66. The Lampstand

67. The Tabernacle

68. Clothing Designer

Poem: Beauty inside and out

69. Ordination

70. A More Effective Sacrifice

71. Incense

72. Anointing Oil

73. Craftsmen

74. Remember

75. Discipline

76. Smashing Stones

77. The Levites

78. Phinehas

79. High Priest

80. The ABC Method

81. Seconds

Poem: My Enemy

82. Moses and God:Elements of a relationship

83. Women who served

84. Investment in art and beauty

85. It’s in the Details

86. Just as God Commanded

87. An Epic

88. Covenant of Love

89. Shekinah Glory

90. Moses Dies

Poem: Dare to Dream

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND FAMILY

Linda Valente is a retired family nurse practitioner and retired professor of nursing, Bradley University, Peoria, IL. Her assistant writer and husband Frank, who has a graduate degree in theology from Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL is a retired hospice/ hospital chaplain for Carle/Methodist in Peoria, Illinois. Linda and Frank were short term missionaries first with Wesleyan Native American Ministries and later with TEAM in Zimbabwe.

They currently attend church at New Beginning Ministries of Peoria. Their son, David Valente, writer of poems in this devotional, has a graduate degree from Moody Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL. Paul Anderton, Linda’s father, was an artist for this book. Seth Anderton Peterson, age 10, is another family artist who lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

THAT FOREIGN FEELING

EXODUS 1:1-15

DAY 1

In Exodus 1:7 the Israelites, who had moved into Egypt in Joseph’s generation, were fruitful and multiplied. They were estimated to about 2 million people. The new king, Pharaoh was threatened by their numbers. He had a king’s fear that this group of people may rise up against him. In many different ways Egypt was a melting pot for many people groups. Pharaoh feared losing power; so, he instituted slavery in order to maintain control, to give him ready labor to build cities, granaries, and palaces. Pharaoh’s plan of oppression was effective. This foreign immigration policy of slavery was prophesied to the Israelite’s ancestor, Abraham in Genesis 15:13, Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated for 400 years.

In Exodus 1:15 the ethnic word Hebrew comes from an Egyptian term, apiru, a term for social connection or lack of. It refers to outsiders, strangers, foreigners, those who do not own property, threatened the status quo of settled people, not of the majority population, and social outcasts. The word Hebrew describes the despised Israelites as a put down people group. (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, 2009)

It’s interesting how God has a love for strangers and foreigners. In the Joseph story in Genesis chapter 39 to 50 Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and became a ruler of Egypt second to pharaoh himself. Also, 2/3 of the new testament was written by the apostle Paul who is looked at as an outcast. The disciples didn’t even believe that he was a new Christian. A foreigner Rahab is listed in the genealogy that leads to Christ’s ancestors. Ruth, who is a foreigner, has her own book in the Old Testament.

Many languages have words meant only for outsiders. The not so nice words that essentially amount to telling someone that they are unwanted. When we were in Senegal, West Africa visiting our daughter who was in the PEACE CORPS the Woolaf language word for a white outsider was pronounced two-bob. It does not feel good to be called a two-bob. Have you ever had that feeling of being out of place? A stranger to the local culture? A feeling of fear or threat?

Worship in Prayer: Intercede for people who would be called a two-bob that you know. Write out a prayer. Read the prayer out loud to your family.

Worship in Activity: provide hospitality to a foreign student at your local college.

Worship in Art: search online for Sir Edward John Poynter and his 1867 painting titled Israel in Egypt which depicts Exodus 1:7-11 Look for the caregiver with water and the fallen slave in the foreground. What emotion do you feel?

DELIVERY AND PROTECTION

EXODUS 1:15-22

DAY 2

Despite the evil Pharaoh, the Hebrews continued to multiply. The rigors of slave labor were not enough to depress the birth rate. Seeing that slavery did not solve his problems, Pharaoh, in his fear of losing power, turned to killing babies. His plan was to get midwives to kill the baby boys at birth. When that did not work, he came up with a second plan in verse 22. Pharaoh, most likely Rameses II, orders the Hebrews to throw every newborn boy into the Nile river. Acts 7:19 states that he, the Egyptian king, oppressed our forefathers forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die. His efforts were thwarted by God, The Great Deliverer.

At this point in time Infanticide was not routinely practiced by the Israelites. They saw children as a blessing. Psalm 127:3-5 says that children are a heritage from the Lord. Here in Exodus 1:22 Pharaoh required infanticide by his decree. If his plan had succeeded, Pharaoh would have wiped out the Hebrews. The future generation of men would be dead and the girls would marry into Egyptian families and be absorbed into their race and culture. His efforts were thwarted by God, the Protector.

David writes in Psalm 139:13-16 that God knew our days before we even come to be. He creates our innermost beings and knits us together in our mother’s womb. David states that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. When you were woven together, God saw you before you were born, and knew who you would grow up to be. Praise God, our Deliverer and Protector.

Midwives are nurse’s with special training in the care of expectant mothers and their babies, before, during, and after delivery. Pharaoh held a conference with two representative midwives hoping that they would fear and obey him, the king. Pharaoh was no doubt an intimidating man. However, in Exodus 1: 17, the midwives, who may well have been intimidated, did not obey the king. They respected their Lord instead. The two nurses stood in awe of God and not afraid of the risks involved, followed the Lord’s ethical imperatives. Many baby boys lived. Midwives had a hand in saving the lives of Moses. God placed midwives in leadership amongst his people to see that pregnancies were completed and delivery of a live baby was accomplished.

Praise God Our Deliverer and Protector!

Worship in Prayer: intercede for the workers and volunteers at a Women’s Pregnancy Center. They have been given the ministry of protection of mothers and children.

Worship as a Caregiver: volunteer at a local pregnancy center.

SEVEN WOMEN

EXODUS 1:15-22, 2:1-10, AND 21-22

DAY 3

Seven women are listed here who are involved in the life of Moses. These women were faithful in the work that God called them to. They are role models for all who read about them in God’s word.

First, look at the two nurse midwives. They were working women blessed of God, who were leaders in their occupation among the many midwives who served the Hebrew peoples. Shiphrah (a Semitic word for beautiful and elegant) and her nurse partner Puah (meaning one who cries out) delivered babies in Egypt, setting a pattern of protecting little ones before, during, and after childbirth. They made the decision to defy Pharoah, obeyed God, and save many Hebrew baby boys. Exodus 1:21 states that God was kind to the midwives and he blessed them with families of their own. God also blessed the Hebrew people through the midwives and their number increased, and became even more numerous. (Ex1:20).

Jochebed was Mom to Moses. Her name means the Lord is Glory. As a Levite woman, she obeyed the law of Pharaoh by throwing her baby boy in the Nile river. Drawing on her resources of courage and ingenuity as only a mother would, she put her baby in his own floating waterproof basket to save his life and obey the King. Hebrews 11:23 states, by faith Moses’ parents hid him for 3 months after he was born, because they saw that he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the King’s edict. God let Amram and Jochebed, as parents, know that they had a special child to care for.

Miriam, the big sister, was conveniently placed at a watch point, keeping an eye on that floating basket. She watched Pharaoh’s daughter come down to the river and open the basket and find the baby. Assuming Moses now had a new foster mother and knowing the child’s real mother, Miriam cleverly asked, "Do you want me to go and get a nursing mother? And so she went and got the child’s biological mother. She was faithful in her duty as big sister!

Now the fifth female to have a role in the life of Moses was Pharaoh’s daughter, his foster mother. Acts 7:20-22. Moses was born, a most beautiful baby. He was hidden at home for 3 months. When he could be hidden no longer, he was placed outside and immediately rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter, who mothered him as her own son. We have no idea from scripture what this daughter of the king believed. We do know that God used her for his glory. God gave her that kind of love for Moses at a time when her father the king was killing all the babies. Moses was educated in the best schools in Egypt. He was equally impressive as a thinker and an athlete. Moses, as a foster son, was educated as if he was a royal prince. Pharaoh, who tried so hard to kill Hebrew boys, ironically, had Moses grow up in his own household with

Reviews for Exodus

[David Valente · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great devotional book with great applications based in art , cooking, and worship!