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

After Moses had destroyed the golden calf and restored order in the Israelite camp, God told Moses to lead the Israelites on to the Promised Land, but that He would not go with them, because if He did He might destroy them on the way.  In response Moses said something which tells us a lot about our relationship with God.  As part of requesting God to go with them Moses said, “f you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you…”  God taught Moses His ways because He was pleased with him.  Also, Moses did not please God because he followed His ways.  If that were the case, Moses would not have needed God to teach him His ways.   In the same way, God is not pleased with us because we follow His ways.  Rather, He is pleased with us because we recognize that we need Him, and because of that He teaches us His ways.  It was important that Moses realize that he needed to be taught God’s ways.  It is just as important that we recognize that we need to be taught His ways.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 30-32.

When we read and talk about the Israelites making and worshiping the golden calf while Moses was on Mt Sinai we tend to either look at how God got angry and Moses argued against God destroying them, or we look at how Moses got so angry that he destroyed the stone tablets which God had inscribed.  I have never heard or read anyone who looked at the contrast between Moses’ reaction when God told him about it and his reaction when he witnessed it for himself.  When God proposed destroying the Israelites and building a people to fulfill His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob from Moses’ descendants, Moses argues against doing so.  Then on the way down the mountain, when they first heard the sounds of the festival which Aaron had the people put on in worship of the calf, Joshua thought it sounded like the aftermath of a battle.  However, Moses immediately realized that it did not sound either like the celebration of a victory, nor did it sound like the grieving after a loss.  Then when Moses realized what was actually going on, he was furious.  It seems to me that perhaps God suggested to Moses that He would wipe out the Israelites so that Moses would come to their defense, which would temper his anger when he saw what they were actually doing a short time later.  It is worth noting that when Moses sent the Levites through the camp to kill, they only killed about three thousand men.

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

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.