I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
While they were in the desert, the Amalekites attacked them. Moses sent Joshua out with some of the men to fight them. Moses went to a hilltop with Aaron and Hur to watch the battle. While Moses, holding the staff of God in his hands, held his arms in the air, the Israelites prevailed in battle. When he let his arms down, the Amalekites prevailed. When Moses’ arms got tired, Aaron and Hur found a rock for Moses to sit on. They then stood on either side of him and held his arms up. Thus the Israelites defeated the Amalekites in the battle.
Moses’ father-in-law heard the things which God had done for Moses and the Israelites and came to see Moses at the Israelite camp in the wilderness. Upon arriving, Moses’ father-in-law offered a sacrifice to God. That evening Moses, Aaron and the elders of Israel ate a meal before God with Moses’ father-in-law. The following morning Moses sat in court, heard the disputes of the people of Israel and passed judgment in each of them from morning until evening. Moses’ father-in-law told him that he could not keep on doing this. He advised Moses to appoint god-fearing men who could be trusted to judge the minor disputes, bringing only the most important and difficult ones to Moses. Moses followed his father-in-law’s advice. Learning to delegate is an important lesson for all leaders to learn. When a group gets above a certain size, a single leader cannot make all decisions for the group, nor can he resolve all disputes within the group.
The Israelites moved on into the Wilderness of Sinai. They camped in front of Mount Sinai. God spoke to Moses and told him to tell the people that they had seen what God had done in bringing them out of Egypt. If the people of Israel will obey God’s voice and keep His covenant, God will make them His people, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. The people responded that they would do all that God commanded. God then told Moses that He would come down on the mountain so that the people could hear Him as He spoke to Moses. God instructs Moses that the people should spend the next two days consecrating themselves and washing their clothes. On the third day, God would come down onto Mount Sinai in the sight of the people. In the meantime no one was to touch the mountain until a ram’s horn sounded a long blast on the third day, at which time the people were to come up the mountain. Anyone who touched the mountain before that was to be killed without being touched directly, either by stoning or by arrows.
Once again some of the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus. One of them came up to Him and asked Him which was the greatest commandment. Jesus answered that the greatest, most important commandment was the first commandment: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ Jesus followed this up by telling them that the second commandment was almost as important and was similar in content: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Jesus told them that all of the other commandments rested on these two. If we are truly following these two we will keep all of the rest. Some people thinks that this means that if you keep these two, you can break the others. I believe it means that in order to keep these two you would need to keep the others, even if they were not spelled out.
Jesus follows this up by asking the Pharisees whose son the Messiah is? They respond that the Messiah will be the son of David. Jesus then asks them if the Messiah is David’s son, why does David call Him Lord? After that all the religious leaders were afraid to ask Jesus questions. Jesus then speaks to His disciples and the crowd. He tells them to practice and obey what they tell you to do, but do not follow their example. Jesus tells them that the Pharisees do all of their deeds to be noticed by men. They seek out the places of honor and expect respectful greetings from all. They desire to be called Rabbi (or teacher). Jesus tells His followers that they should not seek special titles, nor should they give any special titles to others for all of us are brothers. We have but one Teacher and one Father. Our Teacher is Christ and our Father is God in Heaven. Jesus then repeats a teaching He has made before. Those who wish to be the greatest must serve others. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, while those who humble themselves will be exalted.
There is a definite human tendency to set some people apart. It is really a two-sided approach. Some of is want to be set above others. Some of us want to set some people up above themselves. We readily understand the first part, where someone wants to be seen as special and more important than others. However the other side is just as seductive. We get to acknowledge that God calls for a higher standard of righteousness than we wish to live up to, but that is only for the “special” people, the priests, or the clergy. Jesus was telling us here that God’s standard of righteousness is for everyone, not just some elite few. Some people think that because they use a different title than the ones Jesus specifically mentions here that this does not apply. Jesus was not giving an exhausting list of titles we should not use. We should not use any title that sets some people above others. Pastor is a role, not a title. We should refer to our pastor by his name or perhaps by Mister or Brother in front of his name, titles which can be applied to any man in the congregation. As soon as we start calling him Pastor in front of his name, we start to say that his opinion matters more than someone else’s, not because he backs it up with a better understanding of the Scripture, but because he is the pastor. We are saying that he matters more than someone else.
Have you heard the Lord say, “Come and talk with me”? If you have not heard, stop and listen for He is saying it now. If you have heard have you answered, “Lord, I am coming”? And have you turned to go listen to Him? If you have not, stop whatever you are doing, including reading this blog and go to Him and listen to what He has to say to you. Then come back and finish reading because perhaps He has more to say through my writing (and even if not, I like people to read what I write ☺). Let the Lord teach you His way. Your parents may turn against you, but the Lord never will. Wait for the Lord and take courage for He will not forsake you.
I do not often enough take time to listen to the Lord, to let Him teach me His way. I will strive to do so more in the future.
The writer points out that people will accept compensation for just about any crime or sin against them, except for having sex with their spouse. There are very few people who will ever forgive someone for doing that.