DAILY BREAD READING (Published Daily by Our Daily Bread Ministries)
SEPTEMBER 14, 2026
READ: Exodus 2 (Focus vs. 23-25; 3:7-10)
MEMORY VERSE
[The Israelites’] cry for help because of
their slavery went up to God. Exodus 2:23
BACKGROUND
While driving her nine-year-old son to camp, a mother got lost after taking a wrong turn and getting the car stuck on a rural forest road in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Her GPS and phone quit working because of the remote area, so they were unable to retrace their way back.
In desperation after being stranded for more than twenty-four hours and sleeping in their car overnight, they began to walk. They left a trail of notes along the way: “HELP. Me and my son are stranded with no service and can’t call 9-1-1.”
Because they didn’t arrive at the camp on time, search-and-rescue teams went out looking. They discovered the car, the notes, and then quickly found them.
The Israelites desperately cried out to God for help because they were being severely mistreated by the Egyptians, who had enslaved them (Exodus 1:11-12). Working them ruthlessly, “they made their lives bitter with harsh labor” (vv. 13-14).
The Israelites must have wondered if they’d even survive the cruelty. But God heard their cries and raised up Moses to deliver them (3:4-10). Eventually God used him to rescue them and lead them out of Egypt (see Exodus 14-15).
Whether we’re feeling lost or mistreated, God is always near and His ear is open to our cries. In His time and in His way, He’ll send the help we need.
Anne Cetas
INSIGHT
God worked through Joseph to preserve His people, who at the time of their migration to Egypt four hundred years earlier had been seventy in number (Exodus 1:5). Now, as the King James Version so poetically renders it, “There arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph” (v. 8).
This pharaoh enslaved the Hebrews, who were now numerous, and he began to commit infanticide against them (v. 22). But Pharaoh’s murderous net failed to get the baby Moses (2:1-10).
As God had used Joseph to establish His people, He’d now use Moses to deliver them. But it would take time.
Forty years would pass before Moses futilely tried to help his own people (Acts 7:23), and forty more would go by until God called him out of the desert (v. 30). Still another forty years would transpire as God corrected and instructed His disobedient people (v. 36; Deuteronomy 2:7; Joshua 5:6).
As God was faithful to His people, He’ll also be near to us in our trials.
Tim Gustafson
APPLICATION
How can you learn to share your desperate cries with God? What desperate cry might you need to pray right now?
PR’s (Pastor Richard) RE-EMPHASIS (From Today’s Post)
“Whether we’re feeling lost or mistreated, God is always near and His ear is open to our cries. In His time and in His way, He’ll send the help we need.”
PR’s TAKE
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 nkjv
“…the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[i] have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:26-28 niv
PRAYER
“Please help me, loving God. I’m always in need of Your mercy. I bring my heart’s burdens to You now.”
TODAY’S HYMN/WORSHIP/PRAISE/GOSPEL SONG
“WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS”
What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged;
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
Are we weak and heavy laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge–
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
Do your friends despise, forsake you?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In his arms he’ll take and shield you;
You will find a solace there.
