Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 25-27.

In today’s passage God gives Moses instructions for building the tabernacle.  He told Moses to make it exactly like the pattern which He showed him.  I have mentioned in previous years, and on other passages, that I do not usually get a lot out of passages which describe how things were supposed to look.  I started reading today’s passage thinking I was going to have to struggle to find what I wanted to write about.  Then I noticed something about the description of how they were supposed to put together the Ark of the Covenant.  Twice God instructs Moses to put the tablets of the covenant law into the Ark.  First, He tells him that he is to do so after the poles for carrying the Ark are installed.  Then a second time He tells Moses to put the tablets into the Ark after placing the cover on top of the Ark.  Specifically, God tells Moses to put the tablets of the covenant law, “which I will give you”, into the Ark.  At the central point of the tabernacle, and later at the central point in the temple which was modeled after that tabernacle, was to be the Ark of the Covenant.  And in the Ark was to be the words of the covenant law, etched in stone by God.  This was so important that God mentioned it twice.

Now what makes that important to us?  Well, as I read this I was struck that Paul wrote that we are now God’s temple.  The tabernacle, which was the model for the temple, was built according to plans which God showed to Moses of the heavenly temple. Just as the words of the covenant law were to be in the most central part of the tabernacle, so should God’s Word, and His words, be in the most central part of the temple which we have each become.  We each individually are God’s temple, and we as a group, as the Body of Christ, are God’s temple.  In both cases God’s Word, and God’s words, should be at the center of how we live our lives, and how we relate to each other.  It is so important that we should repeat ourselves in making sure that it is there.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 22-24.

Before I get into my main point today I want to touch on a few other things.  In the second and third verse of today’s passage it says, “If a thief is caught breaking in at night and is struck a fatal blow, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed; but if it happens after sunrise, the defender is guilty of bloodshed.”  I am not sure why God makes that distinction between whether it happens at night or during daylight hours.  However, it seems like the expectation here is that at night one is more likely to be a bit disoriented (and thus be more likely to not calibrate your actions correctly), combined with the fact that after sunrise one can more reasonably expect aid to come in response to your cries for help.  The other verse I wanted to mention is the sixth one in today’s passage which says, “If a fire breaks out and spreads into thornbushes so that it burns shocks of grain or standing grain or the whole field, the one who started the fire must make restitution.”  That one struck me because of the fires in California and the evidence which makes me wonder if they were all set by someone.  Anyway, enough idle musing.

Later in today’s passage God tells the Israelites the following, “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.  Pay attention to him and listen to what he says.”  God sent an angel to the Israelites, He has sent His Holy Spirit to us.  God told the Israelites that if they did not worship the gods, or follow the practices, of the people whose land they were going to occupy, but instead worshiped only Him, He would bless them.  He is bringing us to place which He has prepared for us.  He has sent His Holy Spirit to guard us and guide us.  If we listen to what He says, and refuse to follow the practices of the people around us, He will bless us.  Let us listen carefully to what He says, and do what He tells us to do.  Then He will be the enemy of our enemies and will oppose those who oppose us.  Of course, if we truly do as He says, then our enemies will be those who have chosen to be His enemies, and those who oppose us will be those who oppose Him.  I want to repeat the part which I find most important.  God has sent One to Guard us and guide us, and He has prepared a place for us.

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

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

As I started to read today’s passage, this jumped out at me as my focus for the day:

Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation

This seemed to me to parallel 1 Peter 2:9 which says,

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

That parallel is not an accident.  God had called the Israelites out to be a holy people who worshipped Him.  That call has not been rescinded, even though He has issued a new call to those who will put their faith in Jesus Christ.  All of the earth, and all of its people belong to God, but He has chosen some to be His special people.  Priests intercede with God for others.  The Israelites were intended to fulfill that role, and the followers of Jesus are similarly called.  When the Israelites heard Moses tell them this they responded by saying that they would do everything the Lord has said.  The Israelites were a people because God forged them into a people.  In the same way, God has forged the people who follow Jesus into a people.  Throughout history, time and again the Israelites have become people who do not belong anywhere on this earth.  Yet God has maintained them as a people, because they are His people.  In the same way, God calls people who do not belong anywhere on this earth to put their trust in His Son.  He makes those who do so His people.  Some of those whom God calls were made outcasts and losers by the world around them, others chose to become outsiders and losers (as the world around them see things) because they were called by God.  Whichever is the case, God will make those who answer His call into a people through whom He will transform the world.

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.

The account of manna recorded here is a great illustration of God using His power to provide for our needs.  For five days out of seven the people collected enough manna for their household, and no more.  If they shorted themselves in order to save some for the next day, it went bad by morning.  Then on the sixth day, they collected enough for two days, AND when they kept the extra overnight, it was still good in the morning.  Finally, on the seventh day, there was no manna to collect.  The Israelites had this daily reminder of both God’s power and His care for them for the entire time they were in the wilderness.  Yet, just a short time after they started collecting manna, they were afraid they were convinced that they would die of thirst.   We often do the same thing.  We live lives where we experience God’s care for our well-being everyday.  Yet when some new trouble over takes us, we panic and fear that this time God will not provide.  Let us strive to keep the ways in which God has provided for us, and is providing for us in the forefront of our minds, so that our faith will remain strong in the face of the next problem which comes our way.

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.

Today’s passage begins with Moses telling the Israelites to commemorate the day they came out of Egypt by celebrating Passover and by sacrificing the first born males of their animals, redeeming their first born sons, as a sign that God brought them out of Egypt with His mighty hand.  Yet just a few days later, when they saw the Egyptian army pursuing them, they were sure that they were going to die at the hands of the Egyptians.  Then, after God rescued them by parting the Red Sea for them, but having it close upon and drown the Egyptian army, they grumbled about the lack of drinkable water.  They had even sung

“The Lord is my strength and my defense;
he has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”

How often do we do likewise?  We witness God’s power, but fear the next crisis which comes along. We sing God’s praise for rescuing us, then act as if the next crisis is too big for Him to handle.

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.

Before the Plague of Locusts, Pharaoh’s officials told him to let the Israelites go.  So, Pharaoh tried a compromise, he would let the men go to sacrifice to God, but demanded that the women and children stay.  He claimed that Moses had been asking for just that.  Then after the Plague of Darkness, Pharaoh offered to let all of the people go, but demanded that they leave their flocks behind.  When Moses had first appeared before Pharaoh he had asked Pharaoh to allow the Israelites to take a three day journey to worship the Lord.  Each time Moses appeared before Pharaoh after that he did not repeat the part about the three day journey.  He merely spoke God’s word to let His people go so that they could worship Him.  Finally, after the death of the first-born of all Egypt, Pharaoh not just let them go to worship, but ordered the Israelites to leave en-masse.  This was not “take a three day journey into the wilderness, worship the Lord, and return.”  This was “get our of here and never come back!”  Moses had asked for the Israelites to be able to take a three day journey into the wilderness to worship the Lord, but Pharaoh was unwilling to allow that.  Moses did not bargain with Pharaoh, and we should not bargain with the powers of this world.  Nor should we be like Pharaoh and attempt to bargain with God.  We should do what God demands of us.  Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if Pharaoh had agreed to let the Israelites take a short trip in order to worship God from the beginning.  It did not happen because that was not God’s plan.  The Israelites faced further hardship due to Pharaoh’s refusal to listen to God, but by facing that hardship they received a lesson in God’s power.  Pharaoh was the most powerful man on earth at the time and he was forced to bow down and do as God commanded.  If we do as God wills, it will go well for us.  If we resist God’s will, it will go badly for us, and God’s will will nevertheless come to pass.

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.

When Moses asked God what he should do if the Israelites did not believe him when he said God had appeared to him, God told him to throw his staff on to the ground.  When Moses did this, his staff became a snake.  What I had never noticed before was that Moses ran from the snake his staff became.  I am not sure how that plays into what I want to write today, but I wanted to point that out.  I want to start by talking about how Moses was reluctant to do as God commanded him.  In fact, turning his staff in a snake was God’s response to the second of the objections which Moses raised (the first was in yesterday’s passage when Moses asked what name he should say was the name of the god who sent him when people asked, and yes, when Moses asked that he was putting God in with all of the other gods).  Moses repeatedly made excuses for why God should send someone else.  Then, when God had answered all of his objections, he outright asked God to send someone, anyone, else.  Then, after convincing the Israelites to believe in him, Moses went to Pharaoh with God’s message, and Pharaoh dismissed him out of hand, not even giving him a chance to argue his case and demonstrate God’s power.  Not only that, but Pharaoh increased the oppression that the Israelites were suffering under.  Pharaoh made things worse for the Israelites and they blamed Moses for it.  God told Moses to remind the Israelites of the promises He had made to their ancestors and to tell them that He was about to fulfill them.  The Israelites refused to listen to Moses when he told them.  Immediately following the Israelites rejection of Moses, God told him to go to Pharaoh again.  Once again Moses resisted doing God’s will.  I have summed all of this up because I want to point out something.  Despite the fact that Moses resisted doing as God instructed to the point that he angered God, throughout the Bible Moses is held up as one of the greatest servants of God.  Then when he started the mission God had given him, things seemed to go wrong.  Sure, there was a little success at first as the Israelites were initially enthusiastic, but when Pharaoh refused to listen, they became disheartened.  Nothing good had happened for Moses or the Israelites by the end of the passage.  Things had actually gotten worse.  Yet, everything was going exactly according to God’s plan.  So, don’t be discouraged if things seem to be going wrong in your life.  Just do what God has called you to do and trust that He has a plan.

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.

The pastor where I worship preached in this chapters one and two last Sunday.  He pointed out that, technically, Moses’ mother followed the pharaoh’s decree to throw Hebrew boys into the Nile when they were born.  He also pointed out, as the translators’ note in the NIV says, that the word translated as “basket” is the same as the one translated as “ark” in the account of Noah and the Flood.  Finally before I get into the devotional portion of my blog today, I noticed a few years ago that the Hebrew spelling of Moses is the same as the Hebrew spelling of the second part of Ramses.  When I thought about this it occurred to me that Ramses means “born of Ra”, or “son of Ra”.  The Hebrews did not say the name of God, so Moses could be read as “Son of (God)”.  Now the passage says that Pharaoh’s daughter named him Moses because she drew him out of the water.  The writer interpreted that to mean that she used the Hebrew word which means “draw out.”  However, she may have meant “son of …” because she had drawn him out of the water and did not know who his father was.  Which, to me seems to reflect the way God often works.  For that matter, even if Pharaoh’s daughter named Moses for the Hebrew word for “draw out,” it resembles the way in which God often works.  When, many years later, Moses returned to Egypt to lead the Israelites, the Egyptians would have heard his name as “son of the god whose name we do not speak”, putting him on the same level of the Pharaoh (most pharaohs had names which meant “son of ‘insert name of Egyptian god here'”).

Which brings me to the devotional portion of what I am writing today (I don’t always have a devotional portion, but I do today).  When God told Moses that He was sending him to pharaoh to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses asked, “Who am I to go to pharaoh?” This was bit disingenuous on Moses’ part, he had been raised in the royal court of Egypt.  But God did not bring that up, instead God said, “I will be with you.”  Here’s the thing, Moses was right, the fact that he had been raised in the royal courts of Egypt were NOT what made him qualified to go to pharaoh to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.  What qualified Moses to do that was the fact that God had sent him to do it.  Then Moses began to truly object to the mission which God was giving him.  “Yeah, but they’re going to ask me to tell them which of the gods you are.  What do I tell them?”  Moses know that God was not one of the gods worshiped by the Egyptians, the Canaanites, or any of the gods of peoples with whom the Israelites were familiar.  God’s answer to Moses was, “They know who I AM, just as much as you do.”

I want to take a moment to state the two important lessons.  The only qualification we need for the task God has assigned us is the fact that He assigned it to us.  And…no matter how much they want to deny it, the people God has sent us to know that He is God, and that He is good.  They may try to make excuses to not listen, just as Moses did, and that he was afraid the Israelites would do, but they know…and, if we follow God’s instructions, the Holy Spirit will reveal God to them.

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