Lent Week 5 -- Tuesday

Published: March 12, 2024, 6 a.m.

You are invited to reflect on these scriptures, allowing the Spirit to speak to your heart.

Psalm 54

Save me, O God, by your name; vindicate me by your might. Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth. Arrogant foes are attacking me; ruthless people are trying to kill me\u2014people without regard for God. Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me. Let evil recoil on those who slander me; in your faithfulness destroy them. I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you; I will praise your name, Lord, for it is good. You have delivered me from all my troubles, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.

Exodus 2:23-3:10

\u2026the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So, God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. Moses thought, \u201cI will go over and see this strange sight\u2014why the bush does not burn up.\u201d

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, \u201cMoses! Moses!\u201d And Moses said, \u201cHere I am.\u201d \u201cDo not come any closer,\u201d God said. \u201cTake off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.\u201d Then he said, \u201cI am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.\u201d At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

The Lord said, \u201cI have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So, I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey... And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.\u201d

from Hebrews 9

Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance\u2014now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant\u2026 he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God\u2019s presence\u2026he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.

John 9:35-38

Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, \u201cDo you believe in the Son of Man?\u201d \u201cWho is he, sir?\u201d the man asked. \u201cTell me so that I may believe in him.\u201d Jesus said, \u201cYou have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.\u201d Then the man said, \u201cLord, I believe,\u201d and he worshiped him.

Prayer

Merciful Lord, forgive your people from our offences, that through your abundant goodness we may all be delivered from the chains of those sins which by our weakness we have committed; make it so, heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ's sake, our blessed Lord and Saviour, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.