Today Daily Devotional

[Jonah] answered . . . “I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

— Jonah 1:9

In some ways we can think of Jonah’s experience as a kind of baptism. Jonah is a rebellious, runaway prophet who needs to repent, seek God again, and obey what he is called to do.

God called Jonah to preach a message of repentance to the people of Nineveh. But Jonah didn’t want to. The people of Nineveh were enemies of Israel, and Jonah wanted them destroyed. So he boarded a ship going the other way and tried to flee from God.

But God “sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.” Where else have we seen God’s power at work in a wind on the sea? (Genesis 1:2; 8:1; and Exodus 14:21.) But here God created a storm and a different pathway for Jonah.

The sailors, who were terrified and cried out to their pagan gods for help, showed more respect for Jonah’s God than Jonah did. But at least Jonah admitted he had caused the problem, and he told the sailors to throw him overboard. When they finally did that, “the raging sea grew calm.”

Though Jonah was still trying to escape, God still wanted to call Nineveh to repent, so he sent “a huge fish” to swallow Jonah. And after three days, the monster fish vomited Jonah “onto dry land.” Here again, the sea should have meant death for one of God’s people (and many others) but God rescued Jonah to share his blessing and grace.

Lord, guide us not to run from you, whatever you may call us to do. Forgive us, we pray, and pull us back to follow your way for us. Amen.

The priests . . . stopped in the middle of the Jordan . . . until the whole nation had completed the crossing.

— Joshua 3:17

After Israel’s long sojourn in the desert, God opened a way for them through the Jordan River into the promised land. The waters upstream “piled up in a heap,” perhaps like the “wall of water” on the right and left as Israel crossed the Red Sea (Exodus 14:22). Both stories say that the people passed through “on dry ground” (Joshua 3:17).

Although God had been faithful to Israel, keeping his promises to rescue them and bring them to the land he had promised them (Genesis 12:1-8; 15:13-16; 28:10-15; 46:3-4; Exodus 3:4-10), the people turned away and rebelled. They did that again and again in a long history of unfaithfulness (Exodus 32; Numbers 14; Judges 2:10-23; 2 Kings 17:1-23; 25:1-21). Eventually they were punished and sent into exile, but God, ever faithful, brought them back again (Ezra - Nehemiah).

Then, about 30 years after the birth of Jesus (Matthew 1; Luke 2), God called John to prepare the way for the Messiah, who had come to be the Savior of the world (John 1:29; 3:16). In Mark 1 we see John preaching in the wilderness, calling people to repent and baptizing them in the Jordan River. And here the people are called not to cross the Jordan but to be baptized in it. God calls them to make a new start through repentance, to seek forgiveness, and to prepare their hearts for the coming of the Savior.

O God, when we rebel against you, remind us that you have called us to repent and be forgiven, in Jesus, that we may live for you. Amen.

“Whenever they enter the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water so that they will not die.”

— Exodus 30:20

After Israel had spent over 400 years in Egypt, God’s biggest task was not so much to get the people out of Egypt but to get Egypt out of the people. They needed to worship God and learn a different view of the world so that they could share God’s blessings with the world. And God used water to get them started.

God’s instructions for setting up the tabernacle as a place of worship are in Exodus 25-31. The three main parts of the tabernacle reminded the people of the three basic levels of the cosmos (as understood in that day). The outer courtyard represented the earth—its dry land and sea. There people would wash in the basin, or “sea” (see 1 Kings 7:23-28), and be reminded that God had rescued them through the Red Sea. The Holy Place, a room inside the tent, represented the heavens. Another room, further inside, was the Most Holy Place, representing God’s throne room in the highest heaven. In essence, heaven and earth came together in the tabernacle. And this served as a model of the renewed world where God will come to live with his people again (Revelation 21-22).

God wants humans to work with him in renewing the world, so he gave priests to Israel as a sort of renewed humanity, symbolically cleansed of sin and anointed for God’s work. The role of the priest, purified by water and wearing royal robes, reminded God’s people that they were created in his image.

Lord, guide us to serve you and to share your goodness and love with everyone. Amen.

Was it not you [God] who cut Rahab to pieces . . .? Was it not you who dried up the sea . . . ?

— Isaiah 51:9-10

God had set his people free from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 12:31-38), and as they were traveling away, they came to a halt at the Red Sea. Then they were terrified as they saw that Pharaoh’s army was pursuing them (14:1-10). But the Lord “drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land” so that his people could cross to the other side.

Where else have we heard of a wind (Spirit) interacting with water? In Genesis 1:2, God’s Spirit/wind hovers over the chaotic waters, preparing for his creation. Then, in Genesis 8:1, God sends a wind to push back the waters of the great flood. Now here God drives the sea with a strong wind to provide a way of deliverance for his people.

And while Israel stands safe on the far bank of the Red Sea, the waters come crashing down on Pharaoh’s army. God’s rescue of his people is dramatic and momentous, and so is the symbolism of this event. Remember that Egypt is described as the great sea monster “Rahab” in other Old Testament passages (see Psalm 89:10; Isaiah 30:7; 51:9-10). Here in Exodus the sea is cut in two. And then at God’s command the sea drowns the mighty Egyptian army.

God has delivered his people, saving them from the chaotic, destructive forces of this world. Freed from slavery, they are set apart to bring blessing to the world through God’s promises.

Saving God, we praise you for bringing us out from our slavery in sin to have abundant life in Jesus. Amen.

“I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.”

— Exodus 12:12

When Moses and Pharaoh face off, the biblical text makes clear that this is not merely a battle of wills between human leaders. Rather, the God of Israel is making war against the gods of Egypt.

The Nile River was the very heart of the Egyptian empire. Egypt depended on the Nile for crops, transport, and trade, making it powerful in its prosperity, politics, and religion.

So when God goes to war against the Egyptian gods, a number of the plagues strike at Egypt’s very heart. For example, the first plague turns the waters of the Nile into blood. So there is no water for drinking or fishing or crops, making life very difficult for the Egyptians.

Of course, this plague had deep spiritual significance too. It meant that Egypt’s gods of the Nile (Sobek, Hapi, and Knuum) and its great fertility god (Osiris) had no power over the one true God. Osiris was also the supposed divine ancestor of the pharaohs who guided them into the afterlife.

The true Lord and Creator of the heavens and the earth showed that Egypt’s gods were all false. Egypt and its king were powerless to stand in the way of God rescuing his people.

In what ways do we see God’s power at work against false gods in our world today?

Lord and giver of life and death, we praise you that nothing in the spiritual realm or on the earth can separate us from your love, most clearly revealed in Jesus, our Savior. Amen.

She got a papyrus basket . . . and placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.

— Exodus 2:3

In our reading today, God’s people Israel (the Hebrews) were living in Egypt, and they had been slaves there for generations. Their people had flourished after coming to live there in the time of Joseph (Exodus 1), but later a new king, driven by fear that Israel would grow too big and powerful, forced them into slavery. The king, Pharaoh, even tried to kill Israel’s baby boys by having them thrown into the Nile River. Because of Egypt’s beastly brutality, some Old Testament writers called the Egyptian empire “Rahab,” the name of a mythical monster that symbolized the sea and its chaos (see Psalm 89:10; Isaiah 30:7; 51:9-10).

There is great irony here that God’s rescue of his people begins with water. A Hebrew mother hides her baby boy in a basket and sets it among the reeds along the Nile River. The Hebrew word for “basket” can also mean “ark.” Does that remind us of Noah and his family being saved from the flood (Genesis 8)?

Then the daughter of Pharaoh finds this baby and decides to raise him as her son. She names him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.” And later Moses becomes the leader God uses to confront Pharaoh and to lead Israel out of slavery (Exodus 3-12).

So God rescues his people from the monster Rahab (Egypt). And the water, which could have been deadly, turns out to be a passageway to deliverance by God’s hand.

Lord, give us faith to trust in you to preserve and care for us and our loved ones in surprising ways. Amen.

God . . . sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.

— Genesis 8:1

After human beings brought sin into the world (Genesis 3), things grew worse and worse until God decided to use the power of water in the form of a flood (Genesis 6). Many people would die, but God saved Noah and his family to become the stewards God had created them to be. In Genesis 8 we are told that Noah’s ark came to rest in some mountains, and that God “sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.” Where have we seen a “wind” (or Spirit?) passing over waters before? Look back to Genesis 1:2. The Spirit (wind) of God hovers over the waters as the story of creation begins. And here, in Genesis 8, God is giving humans and his creation a new start. Noah sends out a dove to fly over the receding waters and look for a place to land. But it finds nothing at first. Seven days later, though, the dove returns with a leaf from an olive tree—a clear sign that plant life was flourishing again on God’s earth.

Here, then, we see God resurrecting creation after the flood and making it possible for human stewards to take care of the earth again. How are we doing as the stewards of God’s creation today?

Heavenly Father, we admit that we often ignore your call to care for your world and its creatures, including other people. Forgive us. Thank you for second chances (and many more) to listen to you and to obey your invitation to love and care for all that you have made. Amen.

The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

— Romans 8:19

The world Moses grew up in had many stories about the origin of humans and their purpose. One ancient story said that some lesser gods were tired of serving higher gods, so they went on strike. Then one of the lesser gods created humans from clay so that they could serve the higher gods. So humans existed to build and maintain houses for the gods (temples) and to feed the gods through sacrifices.

To set things straight, God inspired Moses to explain who really created us and why. The one true God formed humans from dust and gave them life with his own breath (Genesis 2:7); God also created humans in his own image (Genesis 1:26). So we humans are created through love, not out of necessity or conflict, and we carry God’s authority with us into the world. In other words, we are children of the Lord of the universe, given authority to rule over and care for creation (Genesis 2:15). And if we would reflect God’s wise rule and care for creation, the world would flourish and provide abundantly for us.

But our first human parents sinned (Genesis 3), so we have not reflected God’s wise rule and stewardly care. As a result, creation has not flourished but has become chaotic and has actually made life difficult and dangerous. Thankfully, Jesus came to show us the way back to God, and God’s Spirit came to teach us how to live for and serve God in the world till Jesus comes again.

Lord, forgive us for bringing destruction into this world, and teach us to reflect your wisdom and care. Amen.

“I [Wisdom] was there . . . when [God] gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command.”

— Proverbs 8:27-29

Historically Moses, directed by God, is understood to be the writer of the first five books of the Bible. Growing up as part of the royal family in Egypt, Moses (a Hebrew child adopted by the king’s daughter—Exodus 2) would have been taught many myths about the origin of the world. An old Mesopotamian myth, for example, held that Marduk, a warrior god, fought against Tiamat, a monster ruling the chaotic sea. Marduk defeated Tiamat and brought order out of chaos.

Now, let’s look at Genesis 1 again. We see powerful waters, but they are not described as a god or a monster; they are simply a part of the world God is creating. God tells the waters where they can go and where they cannot go. (See also Proverbs 8:12-31.) Moses shows that the true God is in control of all things.

In myths about creation there is always uncertainty about whether a people’s gods can hold back the forces of chaos. The ancient Egyptians, for example, believed that their sun god Ra had to descend into the underworld every night to defeat the great serpent Apophis, or else the ordered world would be destroyed.

But in the Genesis story, God creates and makes peace not through battle but with a word. No other force or would-be god is there; creation has only one true Lord.

Lord and God, we praise you that no force in heaven or on earth has power over you, and that you hold all things in your hands. Amen.

The earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

— Genesis 1:2

Do you notice anything curious in the first verses of the Bible?

I have read these verses many times in my life, and just recently I wondered: Where did these waters come from? Well, God must have created these waters at some point, but we are not told that part of the story. We must be reading a poetic narrative that has been in progress for some time before we join with it.

The NIV translation of verse 2 says that the “Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” The Hebrew word for “Spirit” is ruach, and that word can also be translated as “wind” or “breath.” So some translations say that the “wind of God” hovered (or moved) over the waters. Either way, we can begin to imagine God’s person and power moving over these deep waters. In another passage the Hebrew word rahap for “hover” describes the Lord as a great eagle brooding, hovering over its beloved hatchlings as they leave the nest and learn to fly (Deuteronomy 32:11).

So in the first verses of Genesis we see God moving powerfully and lovingly over his yet unformed world of water. Now, here is another question, to which we will return: Do you know of any other stories in the Bible that mention water, wind (or Spirit), and perhaps a bird?

Creator God, may your Spirit hover within us, over us, and throughout your world as you bring all that is dark and chaotic into your peaceful light. Amen.