Blind Obedience...We Need To Follow No Matter What...God Knows

Today's Reading
Numbers Chps 1 to 3

Included as part of God's instructions for how to take the census were exacting details for how the census was to be taken, the role of each tribe/clan/division, and where everyone was to camp relative to the tabernacle.

Moses gave the redemption money to Aaron and his sons, as he was commanded by the word of the Lord. (Numbers 3:51)

Key is that Moses did...

..."as he was commanded by the word of the Lord." (Numbers 3:51)

Regardless of whether I see what God is doing, I need to follow God's commands. God knows what He is doing.

My prayer: Lord, help me follow you no matter what. Help me trust in you.

Help Me Repent When I Sin, and Give Me Hope That There is Freedom From Sin...Through Christ

Today's Reading
Leviticus Chps 20 to 27

In Leviticus we continue to read about God's rules for holy living.

We also see in chapter 26, rewards for obedience and punishment for disobedience.

Rewards

¹ " 'Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the LORD your God.

² " 'Observe my Sabbaths and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the LORD.

³ " 'If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, ⁴ I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit. ⁵ Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.

⁶ " 'I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove savage beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country. ⁷ You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. ⁸ Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.

⁹ " 'I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. ¹⁰ You will still be eating last year's harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. ¹¹ I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. ¹² I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. ¹³ I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.

Punishment

4 " 'But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, ¹⁵ and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, ¹⁶ then I will do this to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and drain away your life. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. ¹⁷ I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.

¹⁸ " 'If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over. ¹⁹ I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze. ²⁰ Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of the land yield their fruit.

²¹ " 'If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve. ²² I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted.

²³ " 'If in spite of these things you do not accept my correction but continue to be hostile toward me, ²⁴ I myself will be hostile toward you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over. ²⁵ And I will bring the sword upon you to avenge the breaking of the covenant. When you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be given into enemy hands. ²⁶ When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will be able to bake your bread in one oven, and they will dole out the bread by weight. You will eat, but you will not be satisfied.

²⁷ " 'If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me, ²⁸ then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over. ²⁹ You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. ³⁰ I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars and pile your dead bodies on the lifeless forms of your idols, and I will abhor you. ³¹ I will turn your cities into ruins and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings. ³² I will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled. ³³ I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins. ³⁴ Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. ³⁵ All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it.

³⁶ " 'As for those of you who are left, I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them. ³⁷ They will stumble over one another as though fleeing from the sword, even though no one is pursuing them. So you will not be able to stand before your enemies. ³⁸ You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you. ³⁹ Those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of their enemies because of their sins; also because of their fathers' sins they will waste away.

⁴⁰ " 'But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers—their treachery against me and their hostility toward me, ⁴¹ which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, ⁴² I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. ⁴³ For the land will be deserted by them and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them. They will pay for their sins because they rejected my laws and abhorred my decrees. ⁴⁴ Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. I am the LORD their God. ⁴⁵ But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the LORD.' "

While this is a covenant of hope, it is also daunting in that there are so many rules and regulations for living. The only freedom we find is in verse 44 and 45, where it says that God will not destroy us. This is not the freedom we have in Christ...with Christ we have freedom from sin because He knew we would sin. It is important for me to repent when I sin and also not be a slave to sin...for this I am grateful to Christ for Him dying on the cross for me.

My Prayer: Lord, please help be obedient to you and when I am not, help me repent. Help me also remember that I have freedom from sin only because of you - Jesus Christ. I am thankful for this.

See The Forest and Not The Trees

Today's Reading
Exodus Chps 35 to Leviticus Chap 19

Reading the bible can sometimes seem to be an arduous process. While the chapters here in Exodus and Leviticus about how the tabernacle is built and the regulations for living are important (particularly the latter), there is an overwhelming amount of detail here and it is hard to see the forest for the trees.

In a few places, God pauses to speak to Moses and the Israelites, helping them focus on what is truly important:

¹ The LORD said to Moses, ² "Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: 'Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy. (Leviticus 19:1)

The Lord then continues to issue a series of regulations on living, pausing once again to provide the big picture:

³⁷ " 'Keep all my decrees and all my laws and follow them. I am the LORD.' " (Leviticus 19:37)

It is of course important to see the forest for the trees. While we should remain obedient to God for anything He says, obedience is empty unless you follow the first command - "You shall have no other gods before me."

My Prayer: Lord, help me focus on you and place no other Gods, whether any person(s), things, etc., above you. Forgive me when I do, and help me come back to you.

The (Radiance) Veil Of Moses vs the Holy Spirit of Jesus

Today's Reading
Exodus Chp 34

After Moses pleads with God for mercy on the Israelites, God then prepares two new stone tablets with the ten commandments inscribed on them, renews his covenant with Moses and the Israelites, and provides further instructions on how to live. As evidence of God working in and through Moses, Moses' face becomes radiant:

29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. (Exodus 34:39)

Seeking further understanding of this "radiance" I did an Internet search and found this link:

http://oakesministries.org/VeilofMoses.aspx

In the Summation and Application sections of this commentary, there is discussion of how Moses radiance is temporary, yet with Jesus this "glow" that we have is ever present (assuming we continue to be in relationship with Him).

I often times feel that I am not a light...I desire to be near my Lord and to be close to Him.

My Prayer: Lord, help me draw near to you, help me be close to you. Help me follow you, be obedient to you, glorify you, serve you and ultimately be a light for you.

God Loves and God Cares - It is a Relationship

Today's Reading
Exodus Chp 33

God is frustrated with the Israelites and He indicates to Moses that He will not be going with Moses leading them to the land of milk and honey:

³ Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way." (Exodus 33:3)

From here we see quite a remarkable interaction where at one point, Moses even tells God to "show me your glory"!

¹² Moses said to the LORD, "You have been telling me, 'Lead these people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, 'I know you by name and you have found favor with me.' ¹³ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people."

¹⁴ The LORD replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

¹⁵ Then Moses said to him, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. ¹⁶ How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?"

¹⁷ And the LORD said to Moses, "I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name."

¹⁸ Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory."

¹⁹ And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. ²⁰ But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."

Is this not remarkable - that Moses can actually tell God to do something and God does not get mad. What is clear here is that this is not a one way street, it's not a dictatorship. It's a relationship. Moses has proven his faith and love for God and in return, God grants Moses some leeway in their relationship.

This is the relationship I desire with Jesus.

My Prayer: Lord, help me have a deep faith in you, a love for you, time with you - including more prayer and quiet time. I want to demonstrate my faith and love for you so that I can have a relationship with you Jesus, like the relationship God had with Moses.

We Must Own Up to Our Golden Calfs!

Today's Reading
Exodus Chp 32

We are all guilty - at least I know I can speak for myself - of seeking other Gods. Here we see how the Israelites (even Aaron!) grow impatient with Moses and God:

¹ When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him."

² Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me." ³ So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. ⁴ He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." (Exodus 32:1-4)

Needless to say, God was not happy with this:

⁹ "I have seen these people," the LORD said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰ Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation." (Exodus 32:9-10)

Ultimately, Moses pleads for mercy to God on behalf of the Israelites, and while the Israelites are still punished, God does not destroy them.

³¹ So Moses went back to the LORD and said, "Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. ³² But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written."

³³ The LORD replied to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. ³⁴ Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin."

³⁵ And the LORD struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made. (Exodus: 32:31-35)

Perhaps one of the most egregious aspects of this passage is Aaron's really lame excuse:

²² "Do not be angry, my lord," Aaron answered. "You know how prone these people are to evil. ²³ They said to me, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.' ²⁴ So I told them, 'Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.' Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!" (Exodus 32:22-24)

Really!? The calf just jumped out of the fire and you had no idea what you were doing and had no part of this sin?

This excuse, however lame, is familiar though. In fact, it is one that I have used myself. What I really need is honesty/responsibility regarding my own actions, accountability through others to speak truth into my life, I must seek forgiveness, and I must be prepared for whatever punishment God doles out.

My Prayer: Lord, help me own up to my own sin and help me avoid seeking other Gods. Shed light into my life so that I can deal with these other Gods. Help me lean on my brothers and sisters in Christ to speak truth into my life. Help me come to you first....and always.

Ritual of the Old Covenant (Testament) vs New Covenent (Testament)

Today's Reading
Exodus Chps 24 to 31

Here we see God giving Moses a lengthy set of detailed instructions for a tabernacle to be built, the ark, a courtyard, garments for the priests, and for consecration of the priests. Finally, God gave to Moses the two tablets of the 10 commandments:

¹⁸ When the LORD finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God. (Exodus 31: 18).

Of course a key question to ask is the extent to which so much detail is required and why is it important. One can surmise that it was a test of the Israelites' faith. The God of the Old Testament is one of ritual. The God of the New Testament - Jesus - is not one of ritual. Instead our relationship is such that anyone can initiate but only Jesus can grant - and he does so through grace alone. While Jesus calls us to love, know Him, etc. there is no formula for us to follow to be in relationship with God Jesus. For this we are to be thankful.

My Prayer: Lord, thank you that came to earth to save me and you did so not through anything I did but through grace alone. I am thankful for your love for me and I pray that you can continue to grow in me and transform my heart to be more like yours and that I can glorify you with my life.

God Sends Us Angels

Today's Reading
Exodus Chps 21 to 23

God has communicated to Moses and the Israelites the ten commandments and now He is giving more guidance on righteous living. Finally, God reminds the Israelites that He is looking after them by sending an angel.

²⁰ "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. ²¹ Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. ²² If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. ²³ My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. ²⁴ Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces. ²⁵ Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, ²⁶ and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span. (Exodus 23:20-26)

Of note here is that God warns us to "pay attention to him and listen to what he says". This is important because God often sends us angels in the form of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Much like Jethro advised Moses, our brothers and sisters often offer wise counsel and act as angels in our lives. While we certainly can't rule out other forms of angels, we should certainly appreciate how others already in our lives can be angels!

My Prayer: Lord, first of all, I am thankful that you love me so much. You watch out for me and you protect me. You are certainly my rock. Help me recognize the angels you place in my life and help me "pay attention to and listen" to these angels!

Have a Healthy Fear of God

Today's Reading
Exodus Chps 19 to 20

Moses leads the Israelites to the foot of Mt Sinai where it is clear that God is present as fire and smoke engulf the mountain. The people fear God and rightly so for He is all powerful and He is a jealous God, etc.

Which brings me to the verse most striking today:

²⁰ Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning." (Exodus 20:20)

This is of course interesting in and of itself because upon first read it is a contradiction: don't be afraid (of God) but be afraid (of God). What is really meant of course is that we should have nothing to fear if we first fear God because he will protect us because of our love for Him and obedience to Him.

This is the difference between a healthy fear of God vs an unhealthy one.

My Prayer: Lord, I know that because I am human I am sinful. Please help me stay close to you so that I can as best as possible avoid sin and if I do sin, help me seek your forgiveness. Help me remain cognizant of your power and that I should seek you first above all else.

Seek Wise Counsel

Today's Reading
Exodus Chps 15 to 18

In these chapters we see Moses leading the Israelites through the desert. God instructed Moses for ways to go, for provision, and he also protected them on their way. The Israelites questioned Moses several times about where they could get food or water and even grumbled how it might have better to be left to die a slave in Egypt. Clearly the Israelites lost faith in their God and began to depend on themselves and Moses in particular. They began to quarrel amongst themselves and Moses began to play the role of judge getting involved and mediating all of these matters, many of them trivial.

Moses' father in law Jethro gives Moses sage advice:

¹⁷ Moses' father-in-law replied, "What you are doing is not good. ¹⁸ You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. ¹⁹ Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people's representative before God and bring their disputes to him. ²⁰ Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform. ²¹ But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. ²² Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. ²³ If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied." (Exodus 18:176-23)

This is wise advice and Moses followed this advice - this certainly speaks both of Moses humility (vs thirst for power) and his wisdom to seek the counsel of others. Note how Jethro makes it clear that those from whom Moses should seek counsel should "fear God" and be "trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain".

My Prayer: Lord, help me avoid the trappings of power over my family and in any other positions of leadership in which you place me. Help me be humble and help me seek wise counsel - help me most importantly submit to your will - as I know you speak wisdom through others.