Wednesday, June 3, 2026
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Exodus 5-7
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 64
Key Verse
Exodus 6:17 — “The sons of Gershon; Libni, and Shimi, according to their families.”
Devotional Thought
There are mornings when obedience seems to make everything worse. You speak the truth plainly, you do the thing God asked, and the situation darkens instead of clearing. That is where Israel stands in Exodus 5. Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh with the word of the LORD — “Let my people go” — and Pharaoh answers with the oldest question of unbelief: “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice?” He does not merely refuse; he retaliates. He withholds the straw while demanding the same tally of bricks, and the people scatter across Egypt gathering stubble. Their own officers are beaten, and they turn on Moses: “The LORD look upon you, and judge.” Moses then cries out, “Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people?” It is one of the most honest prayers in Scripture.
Perhaps you know that prayer. Perhaps this spring has brought a season where faithfulness at work, in your family, in your church has been met with heavier burdens rather than relief. Notice what God does not do. He does not scold Moses for asking. He answers with Himself: “I am the LORD.” He recalls His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He repeats the promise seven times over — I will bring you out, I will rid you, I will redeem you, I will take you to me for a people, I will be to you a God, I will bring you in, I will give it you. And then He tells Moses plainly that Pharaoh will not listen, so “that I may lay my hand upon Egypt.” The delay is not abandonment; it is the stage on which God will make Himself known.
The people could not hear Moses “for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.” Suffering deafens us to promise. That is why God does not merely announce deliverance from a distance; He enters the contest. Aaron’s rod becomes a serpent and swallows the serpents of Egypt’s magicians. The Nile — Egypt’s life, its god, its pride — is struck and turns to blood. The powers that seemed absolute begin to crack.
Psalm 64 sings the same lesson. The wicked whet their tongues like swords and shoot bitter words in secret, saying, “Who shall see them?” But God shoots His arrow, and their own tongue falls upon them. Pharaoh thought no one saw the beaten officers and the strawless fields. God saw. June is a season of long daylight and growing things, and the promise of this passage is that God’s justice, like the harvest, ripens in its own time. Our part is to keep speaking what He commands, and to keep trusting the name He gave Moses: I am the LORD.
Reflection
- When obedience to God has made your burden heavier rather than lighter, have you brought your honest complaint to Him as Moses did — or have you quietly concluded that He is not working?
- Where are you tempted, like Pharaoh, to ask “Who is the LORD, that I should obey?” — and what would it look like this week to submit that area to Him?
Prayer
O Lord God of Israel, who heard the groaning of Your people in Egypt and remembered Your covenant, hear us now. We confess that we have sometimes doubted Your care when our burdens increased, and we have grown deaf to Your promises in our anguish of spirit. Teach us to speak to You honestly, as Moses did, and then to listen as You answer with Yourself. You are the LORD; You redeem with a stretched-out arm. Strengthen us to obey when obedience is costly, and let us see, in Your time, that You have not forgotten us. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 64:1 — “Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.”