Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 19-21.

Having provided the Israelites a learning test with the manna, where He taught them about following His instructions, God spoke to them at Mt Sinai.  First, He has Moses convey the “preamble” to the covenant He will make with Israel.  If the Israelites would obey God and fully keep His covenant with them, He would make them a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.  This reminds me of what Peter wrote in 1 Peter 2 when he said that those who follow Christ are “a royal priesthood, a holy nation.”  The Israelites failed to keep their covenant with God, so God created a new covenant in order to create a holy nation.  I want to note that in this case the word “nation” refers to a people group.  In the case here in Exodus, the people group out of which God wished to create a holy nation was the descendants of Jacob, something we today often refer to as an ethnic group.  The people group to whom Peter refers is composed of those who accepted God’s gift of grace through faith in Christ Jesus.  The former group one entered by birth, the latter group by faith in Christ.  God may have raised up a new holy nation to be his priesthood to the world but He did not forget His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob concerning their descendants.  Let us praise God and honor Him by bringing His Word to others so that they may join the people of God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 16-18.

There are two things which strike me as noteworthy about today’s passage.  One of them concerns the way in which God fed the Israelites in the wilderness with manna.  The second concerns the advice which Moses’ father-in-law gave him.  I will start with my thoughts today about the manna.  We will see if I get to writing about the advice which Moses received.

When God provided food for the Israelites in the form of manna, He also included  a test on who would follow His instructions.  As I read this passage I believe that this test was a teaching test.  I am not sure if you are familiar with this concept, but when I was in school I had one or two teachers who administered tests which were designed as much to help us learn and master the material as to demonstrate how much of it we already knew.  He was testing how well the Israelites would listen to His instructions, but He was also providing them a lesson to help them understand that His instructions were for the best, even when our understanding made us think otherwise.  So, when the people went out to gather, God had told them to gather a “cup” of manna for each person in their tent (I am using “cup” to indicate a unit of measure).  Some people gathered a lot and others just a bit, but when they actually measured what they had gathered they discovered that they all had just a “cup” for each person in their tent.  Then God had told them not to keep any until the next morning, but some of them did anyway.  Those that did discovered that it had gone completely bad.  However, on the sixth day when they gathered manna, they all discovered they had twice the amount they usually collected.  God told them to keep the extra for the following day, the Sabbath.  On this day, the manna which they saved was still good in the morning.

So, let’s go over this more closely.  God told them to collect a specific amount.  Some of the Israelites were lackadaisical in their collection efforts and just grabbed a little bit.  Others were industrious and gathered lots.  However, once they returned from gathering it turned out they had the amount God told them to collect.  This was the first test.  God corrected their mistake in not following His instructions. Then God told them they should eat all that they had collected that day, but some of them saved a bit for the next day.  In the morning they discovered that it had gone disgustingly bad.  This was the second test.  Here God made the correction more obvious.  Then God gave them extra on the sixth day and told them not to go out to collect any on the seventh day.  Nevertheless, some went out to collect and found none.  God gave them a simple, easy primer on following His instructions.  Some understood it right from the start.  Others needed the first test to understand following God’s instructions.  Some needed the second test, a few more the third test.  And some still didn’t get it even after seeing all three examples of what it means to follow God’s instructions.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 13-15.

As I have been reading Exodus this year, from time to time I look something up regarding the events described in it.  Almost every time, at least one of the results I get says that the events described in Exodus never really happened.  The account given here about the origin of Passover makes that hard for me to believe.  Passover contains such explicit references to the events surrounding the Israelites leaving Egypt that I have trouble understanding how it could ever come to be if the Exodus story was just made up.  Passover commemorates what God did for the Israelites.  In order for the story of Exodus to be made up, Passover would need to exist independently of it and then evolve as it began to be included.  You could not invent a ritual like Passover at the same time you made up the story because everyone would know that the events it “commemorates” did not happen.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 10-12.

I have been struggling with how to write the thoughts I am having about today’s passage.  When Moses threatened Pharaoh with the plague of locusts, his advisors begged him to let the Israelites go to worship God.  However, Pharaoh insisted on knowing who would go.  When Moses replied that all of the people and all of their livestock would god, Pharaoh was unwilling to let them go.  When this resulted in the plague of locusts descending on Egypt, Pharaoh admitted that he had sinned by refusing to let them go, and implied that if Moses lifted the plague he would let the Israelites go.  When darkness then settled on the Egyptians, Pharaoh agreed to the women and children going, but insisted that they leave their livestock behind.  When Moses insisted that they needed to take their livestock with them, Pharaoh refused to let them go and told Moses that he, Moses, would die if he ever saw Pharaoh’s face again.  Pharaoh insisted on putting conditions on doing as God commanded.  Even after the suffering his people had endured before today’s passage, Pharaoh was only willing to obey God on his terms.  As I mentioned yesterday, the experience of Pharaoh and the Egyptians only shows us the downside of disobeying God’s commands, not the upside of obeying them.  Obeying God on “our terms” is not obeying God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 7-9.

We can learn an important lesson from Pharaoh.  Time and again Pharaoh refused to acknowledge God’s power and to do as God commanded.  Each time he did so, it became harder for him to reverse direction and obey God.  The same thing will happen with us.  At several points, Pharaoh agreed to do what God commanded in order to get the suffering to stop, but when the suffering stopped he changed his mind.  Another behavior which we often follow.  We bargain with God, then fail to follow through on what we agreed to do when the suffering stops.  God brings trials and tribulations into our lives in order to direct us into the path we should follow.  Those trials and tribulations will get progressively more severe until we do as God directs.  The one thing we do not see in this passage that is generally true, God gives us this direction in order for us to be better off.  Unfortunately, we do not see the benefit Pharaoh would have reaped had he allowed the Israelites to go when Moses first asked.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 4-6.

Yesterday in chapter three when God told Moses to go to the elders of Israel, he asked God what name for God should he give them.  That seems an innocent enough question.  However, in today’s passage, Moses asks God what if the Israelites don’t believe that God spoke with him.  Then, after God gives him three signs to perform for the people, Moses complains that he is not eloquent or a good speaker.  Finally, Moses outright asks God to send someone else.  Which leads us to the conclusion that Moses did not ask any of these questions in order to get an answer.  Rather they were excuses to not undertake the mission which God had given him.  Now, except for the last two, these were good questions.  When God gives us a mission we should ask those questions, but we should do so believing that God has an answer for them.

God’s answer to Moses’ complaint about not being eloquent is one to which we should pay close attention.  God told Moses that it was He that gave people voices or made them mute.  It was He that allowed them to hear or made them deaf, and it was He who gave them sight or made them blind.  Therefore, He would give Moses the words to speak and help him say them.  God did not choose Moses because of his skills.  God gave Moses his skills because He had chosen him.  In the same way, God does not call us for tasks because we have the skills to execute the tasks.  Whatever the reason God has called us to a task, He will give us the skills to execute that task.  God calls us for tasks in order to demonstrate His power.  At the end of today’s passage, when Moses asks God why Pharaoh would listen to him, God answers, “Because I AM THE LORD.”  His answer to us when we ask Him how we will be able to accomplish the task He has given us, or why people will listen to us when we speak the message He has given us is the same.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 1-3.

When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, He told Moses that He had come to rescue His people from the Egyptians and to bring them into a spacious land flowing with milk and honey.  A few verses later, God tells Moses to tell the elders of Israel the same thing.  A few weeks ago I heard Neil DeGrasse Tyson say that milk and honey are the only foods which do not require something to die in order to become food.  He went on to say that he didn’t think the writers of this passage realized that when they wrote it (this was just an aside, his main topic was criticizing vegans for not eating either of these foods).  It struck me that Neil Tyson had almost touched on something profound, and that he knew that he had.  As I thought about it, I concluded that the fact that nothing needs to die for us to consume milk and honey was part of why God used that expression for the Promised Land.  If nothing else, using that expression here was foreshadowing of the New Heaven and New Earth which God will create after His plans for this earth have been completed.  Nothing will need to die for the wellbeing of those who will live in the New Heaven and the New Earth.  I do believe that when God told Moses that He would bring His people into a land flowing with milk and honey He was telling them He would bring them into a land where He would provide for them and that they would not need to use violence to have their basic needs met.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 39-40.

The passage tells us that the Israelites completed to work of constructing the tabernacle, its furnishings, and the garments to be worn by the priests just as God had commanded Moses.  Then, it tells us that Moses set the tabernacle up, and placed all of its furnishings in place on the first day of the first month.  A straightforward reading of the passage suggests that Moses did all of that by himself.  However, that seems improbable as the described parts of the tabernacle sound like they would take two or more people to put together and most of the furnishings would take multiple people to move.  Perhaps, the passage intends for us to understand that Moses supervised a team of people setting up the tabernacle.

As I was writing the above and re-reading the passage to fully get my thoughts in order I was planning to wrap up by writing something about the presence of the Lord filling the tabernacle.  Then I noticed that the passage said that once the table was set up in the tent of meeting that Moses placed the bread upon it and that once the incense altar was set up, Moses burned incense upon it, and that when the altar of burnt offerings was set up, Moses offered burnt offerings upon it, and when the basin was set up and water put in it, Moses and Aaron and Aaron’s sons washed their hands and feet in it.  As written, it reads as if these things happened as each step was completed, with the glory of the Lord entering the tabernacle when the curtain of the courtyard was set up around the tabernacle and altar.  Which leads me to realize that we often only experience God’s presence in our lives after spending a lot of time and effort following His instructions.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 36-38.

A few chapters earlier, there was a description of the plans given to Moses for the Tabernacle and its furnishings.  Today, we have the description of what was actually made by the craftsmen following those plans.  Every year when I read this passage I take note of the fact that those actually making the Tabernacle had to have Moses tell the Israelites to stop bringing offerings for building it, they had too much material.  Now, consider the timing on all of this.  Work on the Tabernacle began less than three months after the people had been worshiping the golden calf.  Now the Israelites were so enthusiastically supporting this work that they had to be ordered to stop bringing offerings for it.  We should never underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit to turn our society around.  No matter how far those around us may have fallen into sin, the Spirit can transform them just as He transformed the Israelites here.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 33-35.

After the incident with the golden calf, God suggests to the Israelites that, while He will send an angel in front of them to guide them, He may not accompany them on their journey to the Promised Land.  The Israelites beg Him to remain with them and stopped wearing any sort of ornaments (as God commanded them to do while He decided what to do with them).  Then Moses spoke with God and requested that He go with them (I am unclear if the order these things are recorded in is the order in which they happened).  Then we come to what today stands out to me.  God tells Moses,

I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.

Let us claim that message for ourselves.  God knows us by name.  Think about what the means.  It is an even bigger deal than if the President of the United States, or Bill Gates, or Donald Trump, or whatever big name celebrity you might choose to name, called out you out by name when giving a speech to a large crowd.  Out of the approximately nine billion people on this planet today, you are important enough to God that He knows your name (and not only does He know your name, but the one that only those closest to you use).  But there is more to this message than that.  If we throw ourselves on His mercy so that He might be please with us, He will do everything that we ask.

Side Note: when I started this I was going to also comment on God hiding Moses in the cleft of the rock, but after writing this I think this is the place to stop.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.