Water - A Table In the Wilderness Week 1
A Sabbath Companion for Eastertide
Menu:
Swedish Meatballs
Steamed Jasmine Rice
Rustic Italian Loaf
Garlic & Onion Sauteed Green Beans
Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake
Swedish Meatballs
Prep and Cook Time: 45-60 minutes
Serves: 6
1 pound ground Beef
1 pound ground Pork
¼ cup bread Crumbs
1 Tablespoon dried Parsley
¼ cup Onion, finely chopped
½ teaspoon Garlic powder
⅛ teaspoon Pepper
½ teaspoon Salt
1 Egg
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
5 Tablespoon Butter
3 Tablespoon Flour
2 cups Beef Broth
1 cup Heavy Cream
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 teaspoon dried Mustard powder or Dijon mustard
Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions:
In a medium bowl combine ground beef, bread crumbs, parsley, onion, garlic powder, pepper, salt, and egg.
Mix until combined.
Roll into 12 large meatballs, or 20 small meatballs.
In a large skillet, heat olive oil and 1 Tablespoon butter.
Add meatballs and cook, turning continuously, until brown on each side and cooked throughout.
Transfer to a plate and cover with foil.
Add 4 Tablespoons butter and flour to the skillet.
Whisk until brown.
Slowly stir in beef broth and heavy cream.
Add worcestershire sauce and mustard.
Stirring continuously, bring sauce to a simmer and continue to cook until it begins to thicken.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Add meatballs back into the skillet and simmer on low for another 1-2 minutes.
Steamed Jasmine Rice
Cook as instructed on packaging.
Rustic Italian Loaf
Prep and Cook Time: 3 ½ hours
Bake at 400°
Serves: 12-16
2 teaspoons Yeast
2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning
1 and 1/2 teaspoon Salt
2 cups warm Water
4 cups Bread Flour
Instructions:
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, mix well. Cover the dough for 1 hour, then punch it down and shape it into a rustic, round ball. Sprinkle it with a dusting of flour and place on a prepared sheet pan or cast iron skillet.
Allow to rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Bake in a moist oven at 400⁰F for 1 hour, (place a separate dish of water in the oven while the bread bakes) or until bread is crusty and brown.
Sauteed Onion & Garlic Green Beans
Prep and Cook Time: about 30 minutes
Serves: 6-8
4 cups Green Beans (fresh are preferred, but frozen or canned are fine)
1 medium Onion chopped
2 teaspoons Garlic powder
salt and Pepper
Olive Oil to drizzle
Instructions:
In a large skillet, add olive oil, green beans, and onions. Cook until the onions are translucent. Add in the spices and combine well. Once the beans begin to brown, they are ready to serve.
Serve hot.
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake*
Prep and Cook Time:1 ½ hours + 2 hours to cool *can be made the day before
Yields: 1 Cheesecake
You will need one Springform pan
Crust:
1 box (3 sleeves) Graham Crackers
1 Stick Butter (melted)
1 pinch Salt
4 Tablespoons Sugar
Instructions:
Crush 2 cups of graham crackers into fine crumbs. Place in a medium sized bowl, along with the melted butter, sugar, and salt.
Mix well.
Pour the crumb mixture into the springform pan and form a crust along the bottom and 1-inch up the side of the pan. Set to the side.
Filling:
4 (8 ounce) Cream Cheese (softened)
1 ½ cup Brown Sugar
½ cup Peanut Butter
4 Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla
¼ cup Whipping Cream
2 ½ cups Chopped Peanut Butter Cups
Instructions:
In a mixing bowl, whip together cream cheese, peanut butter, brown sugar, and vanilla. Scrape the sides of your mixing bowl.
Add in the eggs, one at a time. Mix well. Slowly mix in the chopped peanut butter cups. Pour into your crust and bake at 350⁰F for about an hour. Cool completely before serving. Store covered and in the fridge.
Scripture: Exodus 14:21-31
“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.”Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen." So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord , and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses."
Exodus 17:3-6
"But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?" So Moses cried to the Lord , "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me." And the Lord said to Moses, "Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink." And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel."
Psalm 78:12-16
In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan. He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap. In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a fiery light. He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers."
Devotion:
As we continue to assess Psalm 78, we notice the first of God’s wonders that we are called to remember: what He has done with water. As God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, they were faced with a formidable foe. I know what you’re thinking, and I’m not talking about the Egyptians. I’m talking about the Red Sea. Just as God likes to do, what was a sign of certain death, became for them, their salvation. God carries the typology of the Red Sea many times throughout Scripture.
Though dry land in the Red Sea was their path to salvation, in the wilderness, dry land became a sign of their certain death. Just like the Red Sea, the flood many years prior, and all the way back to creation, we see how God brings life through water. God breaks open a rock and causes waters of renewal to flow in the wilderness for his people.
God continues the same pattern when He offered up His Son, the Rock (1 Cor 10:4), on the cross. Jesus’ crucifixion was certain death. More than the Red Sea, or the barren wilderness which threatened death, the Son of God did die at the hands of lawless men (Acts 2:23). Yet, this certain death became salvation. We all, who come to the foot of the cross, are sprinkled from the fount of the blood and the water of renewal that gushed from His side (John 19:34, Ezekiel 36:25).
The Red Sea, Jesus, was split in two. The Rock, Christ, was split in two, and through Him and in Him we are saved. This is what baptism, the sign and seal of the New Covenant does. In baptism we see that through water we experience certain death, but in Christ we are raised to life ever more (Romans 6:4-10). In baptism we are placed at the foot of the cross to receive the covering of Jesus’ blood as it rains down from heaven upon us. In water baptism we are reminded that from the first page of the story, as the Spirit hovered over the face of the waters, through the flood, the Red Sea, and in the wilderness, God brings life through water in the face of certain death. In baptism we are walked through certain death into newness of life.
The ever present reality of death has not completely left us. The last of Jesus’ enemies has not yet been crushed. But because Jesus’ body and blood have been offered up to the Father, we can even face death itself with joy.
You may think that you have been delivered a trial that is a rock too heavy for you to shoulder.
You may be in the wilderness and are facing a type of death and thirst that you see no way out of.
Take heart, and rejoice! Remember, rocks are often where God delivers His water.
Discussion questions:
1.What is the sign and seal of the New Covenant? (Baptism)
2.How did God instruct Moses to get water from the rock in the desert? (Strike the rock)
3.How was Jesus' death similar to the rock in the desert being struck? (Jesus was struck like the rock, and water and blood poured out for the salvation of His people.)
We hope this is a blessing to you.
Week 2 will be published on March 15th!