Read Exodus 31-33 here.

I want to make sure you didn’t miss this in your reading: “Anyone who works on the Sabbath must be put to death.”  This concept is in both verse 15 and 16 of chapter 31.  I think it must be pretty important for God to say it twice.  Here is something to think about.  I don’t know of any of us who are going to go up to people we know and quote these verses and then put them to death.  I don’t know of any government that is going to carry out this statement.  God however takes care of it Himself.  When we do not regularly attend church, when we do not take time off from our busy schedules, when we do not give ourselves to time for God we slowly die.  We cannot learn about God or what God wants for us and from us unless we are in a regular church setting with worship and Bible study and other individuals to help hold us accountable.  When we work long hours and constantly run on empty with little sleep, exercise, or proper diet our bodies become sick and diseased.  When we do not spend time with God in reflection, prayer and rest our souls begin to become hard, unforgiving, joyless and weak.  Sabbath, whether it is on Sunday or another time of the week, is important to our survival.  Sabbath allows our bodies time to rest and our souls the opportunity to recharge to continue the plans that God has for us here on earth and make us ready for eternal life with God after our lives on earth have ended.  Without Sabbath we will die.

Patience is the one thing that humanity lacks the most.  When Moses did not quickly return from off the mountain the people went back to what they were used to and comfortable with.  What I always notice in this passage is how Moses intercedes for the people with God.  We will see many times how individuals are placed between God and the people to lead and sometimes intercede until we find the ultimate intercessor Jesus Christ.  Many of us can look at the people in our own lives and find at least one or two people who stood in the gap for us, praying for us when we needed prayer and calling us out from our bad behavior when we needed discipline.

Tomorrow’s reading is Exodus 34-36.

Read Exodus 28-30 here.

Chapter twenty-eight deals with the clothing and decoration for the priests but I noticed that within these verses there is a laid out explanation of the role of the priests that may conflict with the role that we as Christians have laid out for our pastors and priests.  As you read these selected verses you see how God is saying “my priests”, “minister to me”, “represent the people of Israel”, “determine the Lord’s will for his people”, “take on himself any guilt of the people of Israel” and “serve as my priests”.  It will be interesting for me to watch as we continue to read to see how and when this changes from the priest being focused on God to the focus on God’s people.

Verse one: “so they may minister to me and be my priests”

Verse twelve: “Fasten the two stones on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod as a reminder that Aaron represents the people of Israel. Aaron will carry these names on his shoulders as a constant reminder whenever he goes before the LORD.”

Verses twenty-nine and thirty:  “In this way, Aaron will carry the names of the tribes of Israel on the sacred chestpiece over his heart when he goes into the Holy Place. This will be a continual reminder that he represents the people when he comes before the LORD. Insert the Urim and Thummim into the sacred chestpiece so they will be carried over Aaron’s heart when he goes into the LORD’s presence. In this way, Aaron will always carry over his heart the objects used to determine the LORD’s will for his people whenever he goes in before the LORD.”

Verse thirty-eight: “ Aaron must wear it on his forehead so he may take on himself any guilt of the people of Israel when they consecrate their sacred offerings. He must always wear it on his forehead so the LORD will accept the people.”

Verse forty-one: “Consecrate them so they can serve as my priests.”

Chapter 30 has an interesting way of providing funds for the upkeep of the tabernacle found in verses eleven through fifteen.  Since we count our membership every year would the ransom have to be paid every year?  Perhaps we don’t count to see if the church is a vital congregation but to help with the upkeep of the building.  Well, it is sort of different since we are a membership by choice organization and these biblical people are all related by blood; it does make us think though.

Tomorrow’s reading is Exodus 31-33.

Read Exodus 25-27 here.

Beginning with the offering I am struck with verse two of chapter twenty-five: “accept…from all whose hearts are moved to offer them”.  God is not making a demand for these offerings he is simply asking for them to be gifts from the heart.

I know for me it is hard to imagine this tabernacle that God is having put together so here is a website that may help.  These photos are of a model of how these scriptures are envisioned.  This is located at Timna Park, 20 miles north of Eilat, Israel located just north of the Gulf of Aqaba

Tomorrow’s reading is Exodus 28-30.

Read Exodus 22-24 here.

Today’s readings continue with various ways that we should live as godly people.  Issues of law in many of these can be seen even today here in America and other countries around the world.  I do sort of like the one about the thief being sold as a slave if he is unable to pay for what he stole…sure might lower our prison population…but then again many places sort of do this concept with prisoners being used for roadside clean-up and other jobs for the state.  What other situations today can you find in this list of “rules to live by”?

Oh, wow, chapter 24 verses 10 and 11: I’d never noticed that before.  All those people were allowed to see God and share a meal in His presence and not be destroyed.  I love it when new things are found in my reading.

After hearing all of God’s expectation the people agreed to them and then Moses went up into what appeared to the people below as a cloud of consuming fire.

Tomorrow’s reading is Exodus 25-27.

Read Exodus 19-21 here.

The message couldn’t be any clearer…

God is God, the deliver.  He is all powerful and can do mighty things.  Obey and all that is promised will be yours and you will be his special ones; his treasure, his holy nation, his priests.

What does God want? OBEDIENCE

What do we promise? obedience

What do we deliver?  ????????  We’ll see but I suspect you already know the answer to that question.

And now we come to an excerpt courtesy of Cecil B. DeMille…well, if you’ve never seen the movie “The Ten Commandents” I tell you it is worth watching at least once in your life but remember it is “Hollywood” so some of the scenes may be out of place.

Think for a few minutes about what your reaction would be at the base of Mt. Sinai if the lighting flashed, the thunder rolled and a cloud covered the top of the mountain…would you feel fear, awe, amazement?  Or, “Oh, brother, now what?”

I found myself watching “The Family Feud” the other day and low and behold I now have a new title for The Ten Commandments – “Writer’s Guide to a Successful Soap Opera”.  It’s sad but true; so much of the  “dos” listed are ignored and the “don’ts” are glamorized not only in the daytime soap operas but in the television dramas seen at night.  It reminds me that I truly do have to be careful what I watch.

Once God lays out the major ten he goes on to list other things that are important for a godly people to live holy lives and give glory to God.  Can you find a few things that maybe we as Christians have moved away from?

Tomorrow’s reading is Exodus 22-24.

Read Exodus 16-18 here.

They have been set free from bondage in Egypt.  They have been protected from the Egyptian army.  They have been provided water when it was needed and yet we begin today’s reading with more complaints.  Now they don’t have enough bread and meat to eat.  As they complain about what Moses and Aaron have done God tells Moses what he will do to provide for them; and he will test them to see if they will obey.

Moses and Aaron go to the people and tell them that God is the one who delivered them out of Egypt and protected them from the Egyptian army and is the one who is leading them now.  God has heard their complaints against Him and is about to provide for their needs and give them meat at night and bread in the morning.  And so quail flew in to the camp and provided for their needs and the next morning when the dew dried the discovered manna had been provided for bread.  They were told however to only gather what they needed for each day but that on the sixth day they were to gather double because on the seventh day there would be none to gather.  They were told to eat all that they gathered each day and when they didn’t the awoke the next day to find it was covered in maggots and smelled bad but that was not the case on the seventh day.  God provided for their needs of food and for rest.  When they needed water God delivered it from a rock.  There was nothing that God did not provide when it was needed.

When the Amekalites came against them God fought on their behalf.

In the last chapter of today’s reading we are introduced to the first formation of government among the people.  Moses’ father-in-law saw how many people came to Moses to settle their disputes so he recommended that Moses choose several good and trustworthy individuals to be placed over groups of the people to hear their problems.  They would judge on the minor situations and bring the major ones to Moses.  This disbursement of responsibility allowed Moses more freedom and took care of the problems in a more timely manner.

So here we have God’s chosen people heading for the promised land and they still can’t manage to get along and trust in God’s love and ability to provide for their needs.  I guess some things never change.

Tomorrow’s reading is Exodus 19-21.

Read Exodus 13-15 here.

Today’s reading begins with God placing His claim on the first born offspring, animal and human alike.  We will see in time how this plays out even more over the course of our readings.   God goes on to tell more about the importance of celebrating the Passover when they inherit the promised land.  It will become a way for them to remember through the generations what God did for them.

God was always with them and to make sure they were aware of it there was a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to guide them.  It was not long before Pharaoh came after them with his full might and they found themselves trapped with their backs against the sea.  God placed the pillar between His people and the Egyptians and then allowed His people to pass over the sea on dry ground.  When the Egyptians pursued them God brought the waves down upon them and they drowned.  There was much celebration.

It didn’t take them long however to begin grumbling as they traveled without water and then the first water they encountered was bitter.  But God provided even the simplest of needs and the most important.

We can see such a wonderful correlation between our lives and the lives of these biblical characters.  When things are going well they/we are happy and celebrate and worship God but when the going gets tough they/we grumble and complain rather than recognize just how good God is to them/us.

Tomorrow’s reading is Exodus 16-18.