Happy those who are persecuted
in the cause of right,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. MT 5:10
EXODUS 1:8-14,22
My Soul's Beloved,
No one can destroy those who belong to You, those called by Your Name, those whom You declared to be Yours. Our names are written on the palm of Your hand. We see this is true even as the Pharaoh turns against the people of God. Those whom He had promised to make a great nation and their descendants more numerous than the stars or the grains of sand on the beach. The new power in Egypt was unaware of the mighty works God performed through Joseph and how God chose him. Through him, God's mighty hand of protection was over His chosen people. But God knows those who are His, and He never forgets His Covenant.
We live in a world that is increasingly ignorant of You, Beloved, and Satan works tirelessly to keep people that way. A stream of mindless entertainment robs us all of the precious and short time we have on earth before we stand before you to be judged by the righteous Judge.
Keep us faithful, O Lord, and do not forget that we are the people of the New Covenant, washed in Your Blood and sealed in Your Spirit.
There came to power in Egypt a new king who knew nothing of Joseph. ‘Look,’ he said to his subjects ‘these people, the sons of Israel, have become so numerous and strong that they are a threat to us. We must be prudent and take steps against their increasing any further, or if war should break out, they might add to the number of our enemies. They might take arms against us and so escape out of the country.’ Accordingly they put slave-drivers over the Israelites to wear them down under heavy loads. In this way they built the store-cities of Pithom and Rameses for Pharaoh. But the more they were crushed, the more they increased and spread, and men came to dread the sons of Israel. The Egyptians forced the sons of Israel into slavery, and made their lives unbearable with hard labour, work with clay and with brick, all kinds of work in the fields; they forced on them every kind of labour.
Pharaoh then gave his subjects this command: ‘Throw all the boys born to the Hebrews into the river, but let all the girls live.’
PSALM 123(124)
Our help is in the name of the Lord.
‘If the Lord had not been on our side,’
this is Israel’s song.
‘If the Lord had not been on our side
when men rose up against us,
then would they have swallowed us alive
when their anger was kindled.
‘Then would the waters have engulfed us,
the torrent gone over us;
over our head would have swept
the raging waters.’
Blessed be the Lord who did not give us
a prey to their teeth!
Our life, like a bird, has escaped
from the snare of the fowler.
Indeed the snare has been broken
and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
this is Israel’s song.
‘If the Lord had not been on our side
when men rose up against us,
then would they have swallowed us alive
when their anger was kindled.
‘Then would the waters have engulfed us,
the torrent gone over us;
over our head would have swept
the raging waters.’
Blessed be the Lord who did not give us
a prey to their teeth!
Our life, like a bird, has escaped
from the snare of the fowler.
Indeed the snare has been broken
and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
Our help is in the name of the Lord.
MATTHEW 10:34-11:1
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