Year 7, Day 69: Exodus 20

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Obviously, Exodus 20 is known for the Ten Commandments.  There are some really good comments about them if you would like to read them.  My commentary to which I’ve linked above has some good thoughts, too.

Instead, I want to talk about the unusual position of worship that we see portrayed in this passage.  Do you see the people’s reaction when they actually see God interacting with Moses on the mountaintop?  They back off in fear.  They beg Moses to be an intermediary between them and God.  In truth, when the people see what relationship with God is really like, they want to back away.  They don’t actually seem like they want anything to do with a personal relationship with God.

I think there are several reasons for this behavior.  First of all, relationship with God is quite scary.  The people see Moses dealing with lightning and thunder.  They see a human reason to fear.  I think this is reality.  When people see someone who truly has a meaningful relationship with God, they see things that makes them afraid.

Of course, this naturally leads to a second reason.  Meaningful relationship with God changes us.  It forces us to live differently.  Look at the Ten Commandments.  If we read those words and apply them to our lives, we will be challenged.  It will take serious effort to put aside our own selfish nature and abide by those commandments!  When people think about relationship with God, they often think about it in terms of what they can get for themselves from an omnipotent God.  But then reality sets in and we realize what we have to give as well.  This often causes us to back away and distance ourselves.  Sadly, it is all too easy to have a less challenging life if we follow the example of the Hebrew people in this chapter and ask to keep God at arm’s length.

I think this is why we begin and end this chapter talking about idolatry.  It is right there at the top of the Ten Commandments.  It’s also the first thing that God says to Moses after the people demonstrate their fear.  Human beings need to worship something.  We all do.  Some of us worship God, or even a god.  Other people choose to worship people, such as celebrities or athletes.  Some people live like they are worshipping their children.  Other people choose to worship material possessions like bank accounts or vehicles.  But the reality is that human beings need to worship something, we all do.

God’s point is that in our need to worship something, we have to be careful to not turn to idolatry.  We are idolatrous because it is far easier!  The truth is that the worship of my bank account places far less demands upon me than the worship of the true God.  The worship of a celebrity that I can never know places far less demands upon me than the worship of the true God.  Idolatry is the easy way out.

The unfortunate part is that in the lessening of the challenge, we also get a lessening of the reward.  When I cut myself off of the challenge of God, I don’t see maturity developing within me.  When I put God at arm’s length, I don’t allow Him into my life to analyze, scrutinize, cut, and change things.  When I take the easy way out and worship the stuff in my life instead of the true God, my life becomes simpler but with far less true reward.

That’s a pattern that I see in the Hebrew people all throughout the Old Testament.  God’s chosen people time and time again put God at arm’s length and choose other things.  In doing so, the deprive themselves of His presence.  They fall away and mire themselves in a culture of self-centeredness.  It is a sad reality that we see beginning to play itself out even as the Law is first given to them here in this chapter.

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Year 7, Day 68: Exodus 19

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Exodus 19 is the beginning of God’s calling to the people.  Up until now, God merely promised to make them His people.  Now we get to see the process begin.  This is the moment that God uses to bring a people into a full relationship with Him – the likes of which have never been seen before.

Naturally, do you hear that God’s intention is that all the people would be His priests?  Exodus 19:6 makes it quite clear.  The Hebrew people are to be His priests within a holy nation.  God wants all of His people to be His priests.

Naturally, this feels quite normal to the typical Christian.  We are all His priests.  Christ came so that we could all be His priests.  Christ came so that we could all be in direct relationship with Him.  But this isn’t really a New Testament idea.  This is a very old Old Testament idea.  God’s call for the priesthood of all believers predates the Mosaic Law!

Next, we hear about God giving restrictions to Moses regarding the behavior of the people.  I have two thoughts on this.  First of all, what God is afraid of is human nature.  God knows that when He appears to Moses, everyone will want to see and experience.  Everyone will want to push and shove until they are in the front and witnessing all the action.  God knows that they won’t be patient and wait for God to reveal His plan according to His timing.  God knows us.  Therefore, God sets limits.  He tells Moses that the people need to stay away from the mountain.  God will not allow their self-centered need to dominate the initiation of His priesthood.

Second, notice that there is challenge in the calling of the people.  They need to consecrate themselves.  They aren’t “good enough as they are.”  Well, let me moderate that a little.  They are “good enough as they are” for God to initiate relationship with them.  But God doesn’t want them to stay the way they are.  God wants them to change.  He wants them to consecrate themselves.  He wants them to rise up to a higher standard and a higher calling.

People, religious leaders especially, abuse the idea that we are “good enough the way we are.”  Yes, God is willing to initiate relationship with us as we are.  We don’t need to be perfect before God will be in relationship with us.  However, God doesn’t want us to stay the same.  He doesn’t want us to accept ourselves as we are.  He wants us to change.  He wants us to rise above our human nature.  We should never accept the message that so many proclaim that we are “good enough the way we are.”  God calls us to be His priesthood to the nations, not to be a priesthood like the nations.

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Year 7, Day 67: Exodus 18

Theological Commentary: Click Here

This chapter really wants us to focus on the choices that we make regarding the ways that we spend our time and the activities in which we involve ourselves.  In this chapter we see Moses feeling like he has to be the hero and spend his time being a judge over every argument and dispute among the Hebrew people.  Because he is the leader, he feels responsible for the community getting it right. Because of this, Moses spends his whole day being absorbed into the negative aspects of the community.  He risks being burned out and becoming bitter in his leadership.

Jethro comes in and suggests that Moses do some delegation.  He says that Moses need not handle all of the disputes, just the ones that common wisdom cannot solve.  Jethro suggests that Moses train some reliable men to handle the simple cases.  In this way, Moses can still hear the difficult ones but also have time in the day to fill other more enjoyable roles in the community.  This will enable him to avoid burnout.

I’ve had an experience recently in my classroom with a similar situation.  A few days back, my students were working on a math project.  They were translating, reflecting, and rotating images all over the paper.  At one point, one of my young men in the class had finished their work and turned it in to be graded.  A few minutes later, I hear the other students in the class calling for his help on parts they didn’t understand.  The next thing I know, this student is bouncing from student to student, much like I do every day, providing help on various elements of the project.

As I sat there reflecting on the incident, I realized that I had a choice to make.  I could be embittered because my students were no longer needing me.  I could have made it all about me and forced my way into the situation.  Fortunately, that choice never once seemed like a real option to choose.

Instead, I basked in the joy of what I was seeing.  Here was a student largely imitating behavior that he had seen me do over and over.  I listened to his explanations and they were spot on perfect.  I reveled in knowing that he had developed enough mastery in the material that he could not just complete it himself but also guide other people through the process. 

I sat back and realized that this is the core of discipleship.  Discipleship is modelling and then releasing people to imitate and succeed.  Discipleship is about training other people to do what is necessary so that you can focus on where you are truly needed.  In that moment in the classroom, the place that I was needed was sitting in the corner, observing this young student take on the role of mathematics mentor while teaching other students what he had to offer.  It could have been about me the teacher.  But it wasn’t.  It was about letting the student rise to moment and shine.

As we return to Jethro, this is really at the core of what he is suggesting.  As Moses shares the burden, other people are given the opportunity to rise up and shine.  Moses then has the opportunity to sit back and realize how well these people have been trained.  It frees him of the burden of community and allows him to instead see the community for what it has to offer.

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Year 7, Day 66: Exodus 17

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Relationship with God is always an interesting proposition.  After all, how many times do we argue with God that He should bless us because we are worthy and we are trying to follow Him?  How many times do we cry out that our circumstances are unfair and ask God to save us?  How many times do we expect God’s provision without even asking?

Two things happen in this chapter in Exodus that can help us to think about our relationship with God.  First of all, the people once more grumble and complain.  God has taken care of every single need up to this point.  They have no reason to think that it will discontinue.  Yet they come and complain.  They come and make demands upon God.  They come expecting God to solve their problem without pausing for meaningful relationship with God.

This is human nature, especially in those moments when life is difficult.  We get presumptuous.  We get demanding.  We expect God to save us.  But do we stop to think whether or not we deserve it?  How many of us truly deserve His love?  What about His grace?  Do any of us deserve it?  The fundamental answer to these questions is that we do not deserve it.  God does not owe us anything.  Yet He desires to give.  He desires to save us.  We are not deserving, but we do receive.  We receive, like these Hebrew people demanding water, because God loves rather than because God owes.

Take the battle with the Amalekites.  Did the Hebrew people win because they were superior?  Clearly not.  When Moses’ arms were raised, the Hebrew people won.  When Moses’ arms lowered, the Amalekites prevailed.  That sounds like a pretty evenly matched battle to me!  The reality is that they prevailed because God empowered them to prevail.  It wasn’t that the Hebrew people were deserving.  It wasn’t because God owed it to the Hebrew people.  The Hebrew people prevailed because God desired to benefit them with His grace.  I’m guessing there was something to the unrighteousness of the Amalekites mixed in there, too.

We all benefit from God’s love.  We all benefit from His grace.  We all benefit from His mercy.  We all benefit from His provision.  None of us deserve any of it.  Yet, we benefit anyways.  God loves us for no other reason than because He desires to love us.

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Year 7, Day 65: Exodus 16

Theological Commentary: Click Here

There are some really neat talking points all throughout this chapter.  Let’s begin with the manna.  I love the people’s reaction to it when they see it.  They call it manna, which literally means, “What is this?”  They’ve never encountered anything like it in the past.  Sometimes God’s provision can be like this.  We don’t know what it is.  We can’t predict its coming.  Even when it comes, we’re not sure what to make of it at first because it is so unexpected and unpredictable.

Of course, there is another unusual element to the manna.  No matter how much a person gathered, whether much or little, it was enough.  I am surprised by how often this is true of God and His provision.  How often have I wondered if we would have enough at a meal, or have enough money for the month, or have enough time in the day?  Yet, I always have.  God’s provision has always been enough for me.  I don’t often have a gross excess.  I hardly ever experience shortfall, much less a gross shortfall – unless it is because of my own intentional shortsightedness or stupidity.  When I am looking to God and living as He desires, I have always had enough.

Then, of course, there are the people who try to outthink God.  They gather what they need for multiple days on the same day.  They try and take too much.  They refuse to lean on God’s provision and began to do their own thing.  Their plans go awry quickly.  The fruit of their efforts because to stink, mold, and fill with maggots.  Again, I know this experience.  When I go off God’s plan and stop listening to Him and His calling, when I start to do my own thing, my plans start to stink and my life goes awry.  Often, it happens pretty quickly, too!

In the end, this is a chapter that raises questions for us about the provision of God.  Are we content with God’s provision?  Are we willing to trust in God’s provision?  Are we willing to be humble and obedient regarding God’s provision?  These are all important questions for us to consider.

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Year 7, Day 64: Exodus 15

Theological Commentary: Click Here

I think that the timing of Exodus 15 is really cool.  It could have gone anywhere in the Bible.  In fact, we have a whole book of passages like Exodus 15.  We call them the Psalms.  But I love that Exodus 15 is placed here in this passage as opposed to being moved into a place like the Psalms, where it might fit better from a stylistic perspective.

Do you remember what happened to Moses yesterday?  The people grumbled against him.  They accused Moses of leading the people into their death.  They came close to even questioning the sovereignty of God.  In turn, Moses came back to God and got chastised for it.  Once God straightened Moses out, Moses became a tool in the hand of the Almighty. Now, here in Exodus 15, Moses turns to God and gives Him all of the glory.

I love this.  This is how we should be.  This is one of the fundamental properties of humbleness.  Moses could have propped himself up and become conceited because He was the one through whom God chose to work.  He could have gone back to the people and been arrogant and said, “See, I do know what I’m talking about.”  But Moses doesn’t do that.  Moses goes before the people and reminds them that it all goes back to God.  He takes none of the glory for himself.  He gives all of the glory back to God.

Moses doesn’t need the spotlight.  He doesn’t need the recognition.  He doesn’t need to “be right.”  Moses simply praises God.  This is a great picture of humbleness.

No, Moses isn’t perfect.  Moses makes his share of mistakes along the way.  Moses stumbles along the path.  But perfection isn’t what makes Moses great.  Humbleness is what makes him great.  His unwavering obedience to God is what makes him great. 

The same can be said about Abraham, by the way.  Abraham made his share of blunders.  But he was unwavering in his desire to follow God.  The same was true about Joseph in Egypt.  The same will be true about Joshua in the Promised Land.  The same will be true about David.  The same will be true about Hezekiah and Josiah and a scant few other kings of the Hebrew people.  The same is true about Peter, and Paul, and John, and the rest of Jesus’ disciples who are not mentioned here.

God doesn’t consider our perfection to be necessary.  Jesus was perfect, that’s enough for us.  He simply asks that our heart be inclined to Him.  He simply asks that when the time comes, we obediently follow Him and lift Him up in glory for the world to see through what He has done for us.

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Year 7, Day 63: Exodus 14

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Once more we have a chapter that properly places the focus where it should be.  Several times in this chapter we hear correctly that it was the hand of the Lord that saved the Hebrew people.  It was the act of God that parted the waters.  It was the act of God that brought the waters together again.  It was an act of God that put fear into the hearts of the Egyptians.  The Hebrew people did not save themselves.  Moses did not save them.  God saved the Hebrew people.

Having said that, let’s look at the people.  Then let’s look at Moses.  I find it interesting to see the reactions of the people within the story.  We definitely have a return to humanity within this chapter.

We shall start with the Hebrew people.  Remember that God has already send plagues among Egypt to demonstrate His power.  Furthermore, God has already shown His ability to spare the Hebrew people from His wrath while simultaneously consuming the Egyptians.  God has made demonstration after demonstration of His will upon the world around the Hebrew people.  Yet they still fear!  They still doubt God’s ability to provide for them.  They still doubt God’s ability to lift them up from the midst of calamity and spare them.  They fear.  They turn to Moses and cry out.  They even get angry with Moses for being their advocate before God.

Is this not human nature?  Don’t we want people to make our life better?  Yet, any time we seek to make our life better, it implies change.  Change implies difficulty, usually.  So when we cry out, and things get a little worse before they get better, why do we so easily grumble against those who are trying to spare us and bring us to a better place?  It’s human nature, and I’m as guilty of it as the next person.

Now, let’s look at Moses.  I was fascinated by Exodus 14:15. The people come to Moses and grumble against Him.  Yet look at what verse 15 says.  In this verse, God states His case against Moses.  It isn’t against the people; it is against Moses!  “Why do you cry to me?” God says.  Moses does what most of us do.  When we are faced with a problem, we turn to other people and pass the buck.  We aren’t told how Moses does it, but we do know that Moses came to God and pretty much told God to do something about the people.  From other places in scripture where God and Moses talk, I’m pretty sure Moses’ words were something like this: “God, I’m just following your orders.  The people are mad at me, and I’m just the messenger of your will.  Do something about it.”

God turns to Moses and says, “Why are you crying out to me?  Take your staff, stretch it over the waters, and do the impossible.”  There’s the catch.  You see, Moses’ perspective is that salvation is impossible.  They are stuck between Egypt’s army and a sea off water.  But from God’s perspective, the solution is easy.  Move the water, dry the ground, and get going on your journey!  I personally can’t fault Moses for not seeing God’s solution.  I would have missed it, too.  From the human perspective, it’s just not possible.  But from God’s perspective, it is.  Here is the difference between us and God.  We only see possibility in terms of what we can do.  God sees possibility in what He can do.  We see our limitations.  God sees no limitation.

I do want to give Moses a little credit, though.  Even though he misses the obvious – yet humanly impossible – solution, Moses does act once he figures it out.  He is obedient.  He does get the people across the sea.  He does listen to God and trap the Egyptian army after God confuses them.  He is willing to be the pawn in the fingers of God’s hand.

Lastly, I had a side note as I read though these words.  In my third paragraph, as I was writing about God simultaneously sparing the Hebrew people while inflicting the Egyptian people with His wrath, I had another random thought.  Why is it that people will assume that God will save everyone?  Where in the Bible do we have such an example?  In the flood, God saves some while condemning others.  In the plagues, God saves some while condemning others.  When the Hebrew people conquer Canaan, God saves some while condemning others.  When Babylon and Assyria come to take over Israel and Judah, God saves some while condemning others.  In fact, in all of those cases those who are saved are the minority while those who are condemned are the majority.  If the Old Testament is about teaching us who God is and foreshadowing what God will do in Christ, why should we ignore this pattern as well?  Yes, there will be those who are saved.  That number will be a great number, even!  But there will be those who are condemned, unfortunately.  I find this to be the witness of God’s Word.

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Year 7, Day 62: Exodus 13

Theological Commentary: Click Here

In Exodus 13, we hear multiple times about the importance of the work of the Lord.  It is the Lord’s hand who brings the people out of Egypt.  It is the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart that the Lord uses to free them.  It is the Lord who chose for them to go the way of the sea rather than the way of the Philistines.  It is the Lord who leads the people with a pillar of smoke and fire.

This chapter is a great chapter to follow the chapters on the plagues.  The plagues were all about demonstrating the greatness of God.  Here in this chapter we have almost everything that happens connected to and attribution to the Lord.

The other dynamic of the work of the Lord in this chapter can be seen with respect to faith development.  Twice in this chapter we hear about the importance of explaining the Passover and the exodus to the next generation.  We are to be clear in our explanation.  We are to be direct in our teaching.  We are to not waver in attributing what happened to the power of God.

This is vital to remember as we continue to read through the Old Testament as well as in our own life.  As we read through the history of the Hebrew people, count how many times the people forget who God is and what God has done for them.  Count how many times the heart of the people wanders away from God because they forget who He is.  If we want people to have a chance in remaining faithful to God and having a meaningful relationship with Him, we must be willing to tell our story and the story of others within whom God has worked.

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Year 7, Day 61: Exodus 12

Theological Commentary: Click Here

In Exodus we finally meet the event for which this book is named: the exodus.  For today, I am going to take a broad overview approach to the passage.  Notice that we start and end with talk of the Passover.  In the middle, we have a brief conversation involving Pharaoh and Moses discussing how the people should leave.

Personally, I believe that the emphasis of this passage is on the Passover.  The exodus happens, and it is that for which the people have been hoping.  But I believe that the power of this passage is indeed in the Passover, not the exodus itself.

Look at what happens in the Passover.  God sends His angel of death – yes, His angel of death – around to check on the people.  Those who have been obedient to God by killing the lamb and putting its blood on the doorposts do not experience God’s wrath.  Those who have not been obedient and who have ignored God’s warning get a taste of God’s wrath.  Fundamentally, this passage is about obedience.  Those who are obedient are spared.  Those who are disobedient discover wrath.

Furthermore, notice the scope of the action.  Among those who are afflicted with wrath are Pharaoh, the lowest of those in jail, and all the people in the middle.  God’s wrath is neither caused nor mediated by a person’s status.  Furthermore, look at those who are spared.  Every obedient person is spared from Moses’ own family all the way down to the poorest of the obedient.  Human understanding of status has no implication upon God’s mercy, either.

What God looks for in terms of followers are the obedient.  It isn’t about status.  It isn’t about skill.  It isn’t about popularity.  After all, what can we bring to the table that God Himself cannot give to us?  No, what relationship with God is about is obedience to Him.  That’s why the Passover is such a powerful event.  We are obedient to Him.  He is merciful to us.  That how grace works.  That’s the pattern God desires to set up in this event as a foreshadowing of what God does in Christ.

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Year 7, Day 60: Exodus 11

Theological Commentary: Click Here

God sets up an incredible message within this passage.  He does it in two different ways.  We see it literally in the plundering of Egypt.  We will see it figuratively in the plague.

First of all, look at the plundering of money.  This isn’t a case where some poor unpaid slaves finally get what they deserve.  This is entirely the case of the Egyptian people willing to do anything to get rid of these Hebrew people and the God who keeps cursing them.  But here is the subliminal point underlying this chapter and the next few chapters to come.  We can ignore God and cast God out of our life.  But in order to do so, it will cost us something.  There is always a price we pay when we ask God to leave so we can continue in our own personal version of darkness.

This leads us to the sacrifice of the firstborn, which God promises in this chapter.  It will not only cost the Egyptians their gold and precious stones, it will cost them their first born.  God is making the point that it costs the Egyptian people their firstborn to get rid of God.  But in a great spiritual reversal, remember what the price is for us to re-enter the family of God.  For us to be a part of God’s family, it will cost Him His firstborn son!  For us to cast God away, we pay the price.  But for us to be able to embrace God, it is He who pays the price for us.

That’s grace.  It may feel strange to talk so deeply about grace in a chapter that focuses on impending death.  However, that is absolutely the grace of God.  Even in the midst of darkness and destruction, God can send a message of grace.

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Year 7, Day 59: Exodus 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here

I don’t mean to beat the same drum over-and-over again, but I love how chapter 10 opens.  God says to Moses, “I am doing these things so that you may know I am God and may proclaim what I do here to others.”  The plagues are still about God’s greatness more than anything else.

In fact, can you feel the progression of God’s greatness as it grows throughout the plagues?  At first, Moses went to Pharaoh and said, “I want my people to go and worship God.  Pharaoh hardened his heart against God and began to lose ground.  By the time this chapter starts, we hear Pharaoh willing to let the men go, but not the women and children.  By the time this chapter ends, Moses finds himself in a position to tell Pharaoh that the women and children aren’t enough anymore.  Now it has to be the men, women, children, and livestock.  Pharaoh is losing ground with every hardening of his heart.

This truly is what the exodus story is all about.  God is so great that the people will leave, pushed out under Pharaoh’s own command, and take not only their own possessions but a good bit of Egypt’s wealth, too.  When we dig in our heels in rebellion against God, things don’t usually go well for us.  We may feel like we are winning in the time being, but we eventually lose.  We lose more as we dig our heels in more.  Our fall is greater the longer our rebellion lasts.

On the other hand, the longer our rebellion lasts the greater God seems.  Our fall might be great, but if we are willing to consider it our rebellion can lead us to a more convince perspective of God.  This is why God keeps coming back to Moses to tell him that these plagues are all about the greatness of God.

I have one more topic to discuss before I conclude.  Look at how Moses and Pharaoh part company as the chapter ends.  Pharaoh warns Moses to not come before him again.  Moses obliges the request.  What does this mean?  There will be no warning against the greatest and last plague.  In his fury, Pharaoh really shoots himself and his people in the foot this time.  Keep this in mind as we read through the next chapter.  Pharaoh’s stubborn anger is truly to blame for the great fall of Egypt at the hand of God.

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Year 7, Day 58: Exodus 9

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Today we encounter the plagues of the livestock, boils, and hail.  What we see in these stories is more of the same.  Moses goes before Pharaoh to warn him.  Pharaoh feigns interest until the danger is past and then hardens his heart.  Pharaoh’s character is really starting to show.

What we also get an opportunity to see in this passage is that our sinful nature – our rebellion against God – affects the other people around us, too.  When Pharaoh doesn’t relent before the plague of the boils, even the magicians are so covered in boils that they are unable to do their job.  When Pharaoh doesn’t relevant before the plague among the livestock the animals in the field suffer for it, as well as those whose livelihood depends upon them.  When Pharaoh doesn’t relent before the plague of hail, the whole of the land suffers – even the plants.  But in this case there is an even worse effect.  Do you see how Pharaoh’s hardness of heart is beginning to leech out into the people?  Not everyone listened to Moses.  Some people follow the lead of the Pharaoh and ignore God’s warning.  The hail comes upon those people and their possessions and destroys them.  Our sinful nature has an impact upon those around us.

We also get an opportunity to see another great example of the point that I spoke last about yesterday.  Do you hear the reason that God gives for these events?  Look at Exodus 9:16 very closely.  God has raised up this very situation so that His name would be proclaimed among the nations.  The Exodus is about God’s greatness and mankind’s understanding of His greatness.  Leading the people out of Egypt and into the Promised Land has to do with God’s greatness and our understanding of it.  Yes, God loves us.  He sends His blessings down upon us.  He wants us to enjoy the creation that He has set before us and to be free from those who would oppress us.  But ultimately what is significant is not me and how much God loves me.  What is significant is God and how great God is.  That should be our true focus.

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Year 7, Day 57: Exodus 8

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Today I have three thoughts.  They do all tie together in that they are a part of the Exodus story and they all relate to our relationship with God.  In truth, though, they are separate thoughts.

First, let’s return to the overarching conversation of the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart that always surrounds this passage.  Three times we see Pharaoh’s heart harden.  Verse 15 gives us insight into God’s involvement in the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.  It says that Pharaoh’s heart hardened as God said it would.  God gives Pharaoh three more times in this story to let the people go, and three times Pharaoh says he will let them go but changes his mind.  Pharaoh’s heart isn’t in it for the good of mankind.  Pharaoh’s heart desires to not lose his slave population.  His heart weakens under pressure, as most of us do.  But when the pressure goes away, his heart reverts back to its hardness.

Second, let’s talk about Pharaoh’s magicians.  Do you notice that the magicians can imitate God with the frogs?  But then they cannot imitate with the gnats.  They don’t even try with the flies.  Human beings can occasionally imitate the work of God.  When I think about this, I think about big things like seeding rain clouds to make it rain, or the nuclear processes for creating fission and fusion power, or even curing diseases.  We can do some things that God can do – albeit not in the same method.  But we must also remember that we are merely imitating a greater power.  No matter what we learn to do with great effort, God can do far more with far greater understanding.  Our greatness should never be reason to think less of God.  We are like the Egyptian magicians in that we will eventually reach our limit in our imitation of God.

The last idea that I would like to speak about is the reason for God to separate the plagues, beginning with the fourth plague.  Beginning with the flies, we see that the plagues will only impact the Egyptian people and not the Hebrew people.  Be extraordinarily careful with this.  It is so easy to speak about this in terms of God loving the Hebrew people more or God not wanting to put the Hebrew people in jeopardy.  When you think this, don’t forget that God did subject them to the first three plagues!  Read the actual words that God uses when describing His motivation for separating the peoples.  God does this s that the Egyptians will know that He is God.  God isn’t sparing His people, at least not as His primary motivation; He is demonstrating His power!  God is revealing His character while Pharaoh reveals his own.  Yes, God does love the Hebrew people.  However, He loves all mankind.  His love isn’t the issue here.  God’s character and Pharaoh’s understanding is the issue.

For the record, look up most healing stories that Jesus does in the New Testament.  Yes, Jesus loves all the people that He heals.  But f you are careful and read the reason for the healing, you will find the same rationale.  Jesus heals so that God may be known in the world.  Miracles – and the Egyptian plagues are indeed miracles – have more to do with revealing who God is than demonstrating His love.

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Year 7, Day 56: Exodus 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here

The conflict begins between God and Pharaoh.  From God’s perspective, this is a conflict between an egotistical man and an eternal almighty God.  However, from the perspective of the Egyptians, this is a battle between gods.  This is a supernatural conflict between the power of the God of the Hebrews and the power of Pharaoh, who was himself considered a god among the gods of the Egyptians.

Notice how this story starts.  God does supernatural acts.  There are consequences to the acts.  Aaron’s staff becomes a snake and eats the snakes of the Egyptian magicians.  The Nile turns to blood and the Egyptian people can no longer find water to drink and use to cook.  We start relatively small compared to what is about to come.

Notice that Pharaoh’s heart remains hard.  Why does it remain hard?  It remains hard because Pharaoh refuses to attribute God’s work to Him.  Pharaoh’s magicians come in and imitate God’s work and give Pharaoh every reason to doubt.  Pharaoh can doubt because he takes the opportunity to attribute God’s work to that which he can explain.

Learn this lesson.  When God acts, it is important that we acknowledge His action.  How will we ever be faithful to Him if we do not acknowledge His presence in the first place?  How will we ever see His hand at work if we are constantly attributing His work to others?  This is the first reason why Pharaoh’s heart is hardened.  God starts with small miracles capable of being imitated to allow this aspect of Pharaoh’s character to come to the surface.

Before I leave this post, though, I feel the need to make sure that we don’t go to the other extreme, either.  We do not want to go too far and attribute everything to God.  This behavior leads to superstition and ritualized religion.  We often hear this when normal natural disasters strike such as hurricanes and droughts.  God can bring large events like that upon us, but sometimes they just happen or they can even be manmade!  For example, read up on the dustbowl in the early 1900s in western America.

What we need to seek is genuine relationship with God, not ritual and superstition.  It is important to attribute God’s action to Him, but to not see everything that happens as a direct result of God’s will.  They only way to strike this balance is to be in relationship with Him, listening to Him and seeking His will.

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Year 7, Day 55: Exodus 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Have you ever read through the first 20 chapters of Exodus and wondered about the passages that say, “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart?” We haven’t had any of them thus far, but we are about to get a string of them in the next four or five chapters.  If you are like me, you’ve wondered how it is that Pharaoh can be blamed for his actions if it is God who is hardening his heart.

I almost always have this struggle when I read these chapters.  However, I think that there is a clue to this in the opening verses of today’s chapter.  God clearly says that He is about to do something to Pharaoh.  However, in the same breath he also says that it is with a strong hand that Pharaoh will send the Hebrew people out of Egypt.

Obviously, God wants His people to leave Egypt.  God also knows the hardness that dwells within the heart of Pharaoh.  God is willing to give Pharaoh any and every opportunity to see the hardness that dwells within him.  God isn’t going to force Pharaoh into anything, but God is certainly willing to shape Pharaoh’s world so that the hard and rebellious inner character deep within can come out to the surface.

God has done this all throughout the witness of the Old Testament thus far.  God placed Adam and Eve in the garden in the presence of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  He didn’t force them to eat it, but he allowed Adam’s and Eve’s inner character to come forth.  God favored Abel’s sacrifice over Cain’s, putting Cain in a position to feel anger.  God didn’t want Cain to kill his brother, but God put him in a position to allow that character to come forth.  The same can be said of Abraham and them many experiences (both good and bad) that he has.  The same can be said of Jacob with Esau, Laban, his wives, and his children.  The same can be said about Joseph and his ups and downs.

This really isn’t any different than what God does with us.  God places us in situations where we can show our inner character.  Sometimes, like Joseph in Potiphar’s house or Abraham coming from Ur, we get it right and the character that comes to the surface is a good one.  Other times, like Jacob with Laban or Joseph’s brothers in the story of Joseph and his coat, the character that bubbles forth is self-serving and repulsive.  Yet we are always in places in which we can see the person who lives within.  We can always look, celebrate the positive, and seek to change the negative within ourselves.

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Year 7, Day 54: Exodus 5

Theological Commentary: Click Here

No good task goes unpunished.  That’s my usual reaction to this chapter.  Moses goes and does what God asks.  He meets with the Hebrew people and they seem favorable to him.  Yet, when he goes to talk with Pharaoh, things go poorly.  Pharaoh is disagreeable and starts to take it out on the Hebrew people in general.  Pharaoh makes life miserable for the Hebrew workers.  The Hebrew people come back and turn on Moses.  They tell Moses that they expect God to look upon him with displeasure because in their eyes he has made their life miserable.

This is a rather common experience among people who try to do the work of the Lord, to be honest.  Often the Lord calls people to work in the lives of others.  Working in the lives of others usually implies change and challenge.  Change and challenge are scary to most people, often causing fear and rejection.  In fact, do you remember Moses’ reaction yesterday?  Moses was scared and hesitant to obey God because God challenged him.  God was big enough to take the challenge and give Moses time to accept the challenge.

Moses, being human, doesn’t learn this lesson.  Moses doesn’t have the eternal perspective of God.  He doesn’t know how God is going to unfold His plan.  He can’t see how this part of the story is necessary to getting the Hebrew people out of Egypt for good, having plundered the Egyptians along the way.  Instead, Moses turns to God and gives God the same kind of grief that the Hebrew people have given him.  The Hebrew people are short-sighted.  Moses is short-sighted.

The reality is that when we start following God, we need to expect some rejection.  There will always be people who do not want to listen to what God has to say in their life.  There will always be people who want to continue living as they are.  If you spend much time reading God’s Word at all, you will realize that rejection along the way is to be expected.

What is important is that we cannot let the rejection keep us from obedience.  People’s acceptance or rejection doesn’t change God’s calling for our life.  We cannot know the end that God has for us if we follow Him in obedience.  We must pursue His will while enduring the rejection of the world around us.  That, literally for Moses and figuratively for us, will lead us to the Promised Land.

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Year 7, Day 53: Exodus 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Today we get another glimpse of the implementation of God’s plan.  It is easy to become fixated on the events of this story because of the miraculous nature of them.  Moses’ hand becomes leprous when he sticks it inside of his cloak.  Moses’ staff turns into a serpent until he grabs it by the tail.  God promises that He will turn the Nile water into blood if absolutely necessary.  These are captivating elements of a story indeed.

Although it is easy to get fixated on the events, when we do so we miss a significant portion of the story.  Look at how Moses acts in the story.  We get a great glimpse of human nature here.  In the last chapter, we saw how God used Moses’ curiosity to get his attention.  Now, however, when God puts the focus on Moses’ upcoming action we begin to see a little hesitation within Moses.  Moses wonders why they would believe him.  After all, he is a murderer.  Why would they believe the words of a murderer?

Perhaps there is also a hint of fear within his words.  God is asking some big things from him.  In order to accomplish them, he is going to need to go before the Hebrew leaders.  He is also going to need to go before Pharaoh – likely the son of the Pharaoh who raised him – and make requests.  There are many good reasons for him to fear.  God is setting out a difficult road, fraught with many difficult activities to come.

Notice that God does not abandon Moses in spite of his hesitation or his fear or whatever else that he is feeling.  God doesn’t expect us to blindly follow with absolute courage.  He expects us to follow in human ways.  He expects us to be fearful, especially when asking great things.  He expects us to be timid from time to time.  He expects us to be confused and not understand.  These are all normal things for us to experience and they do not prohibit God from using us.

One of the great things about studying God’s Word is being free to look at the people God uses.  When we do, we get a long list of flawed, yet obedient, servants.  God’s Word does show us incredible acts of supernatural power.  But perhaps even more importantly it shows us His action through some very normal human beings.  That is a God who desires to be in relationship with us.

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Year 7, Day 52: Exodus 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Today we get to continue the story of Moses with the burning bush.  I love this story because it shows us the natural curiosity of Moses.  Here is a bush that won’t burn.  Logically speaking, Moses should run away.  This is something clearly beyond his capacity to understand and his capability to imitate.  Logically, he should head the other way without looking back.  But his curiosity is stronger than his logic.  God uses Moses’ curiosity to open a door that logic could not open.

When Moses arrives at the bush, we get an opportunity to relearn a very important lesson.  The presence of God is significant.  It isn’t the burning bush that is holy.  It isn’t the piece of ground that is sacred.  We don’t see these acres of ground venerated again in the Bible in remembrance.  The ground is holy because the presence of God is within it.  God’s presence changes the nature of things from mundane to holy.  This is true about us as people, too.

Look also to the exchange between Moses and God.  Do you hear how Moses speaks?  Moses distinctly uses the word “if.”  He is not entirely sold on the idea that God is setting before him.  However, God is okay with this.  God has no trouble with Moses warming up to the idea.  Once more we see that God is patient with us.  God knows that we cannot see what He sees and we cannot know what He knows.  Yet, even in our doubt and slowness in understanding He still works with us.  He wants us to be a part of His plan.  He wants to include us in His work.

Finally, let’s take a look at the famous “I am who I am” passage.  This could also be translated as “I am what I am” or even “I will be what I will be.”  What is the point of all of this?  God’s character does not change.  God may change His plan.  God may allow us to affect how He does things in the world.  God may give us a choice as to how to participate in His work.  However, God does not change who He is. His character is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  He is reliable.  He is trustworthy.

There is a consistent theme running through this passage.  The ground where God happens to be is made holy because of God’s constant presence.  Moses is curious and growing, but God’s nature is constant.  Moses is cautious about committing, but God’s nature is constant.  God knows what He is doing and how He will get humanity to where He needs us to go.  His methods may be flexible, but His character is true.

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Year 7, Day 51: Exodus 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Once more we see that God uses people with flaws.  That’s a really nice way of saying that none of us are perfect.  That’s also a really nice way of saying that each of us have things about us where we are prone – if not automatic – to doing wrong.

Moses is raised up in the house of Pharaoh.  There can be no doubt about his heritage, though.  Egyptians don’t look much like Hebrew people.  I can’t think of any reason why his Egyptian mother would have hidden his identity from him, especially as he grew older.  When Moses is a young adult, he sees one of his Hebrew people getting beaten up by one of his Egyptian people.  Moses clearly chooses to stick up for his Hebrew brethren.  He kills the Egyptian.  The Pharaoh is not pleased, and he seeks to kill Moses.  There can be no doubt.  Moses’ first claim to fame is that he murdered someone in a crime of passionate anger.

But look at the very next story.  God doesn’t abandon Moses.  God doesn’t say to Moses, “I have no use for you since you killed someone.”  No.  God uses that which is within Moses in a way to suit his purposes.  Moses clearly has a well-defined sense of justice versus injustice.  God plans to use it.  God may not approve of the murder of the Egyptian, but that doesn’t mean Moses gets kicked to the curb.

Moses sees the women of a priest being mistreated by some shepherds.  They are unable to water their flocks.  Moses comes in, sees the injustice, and sets the record straight.  Notice that nobody dies in this story.  God’s been working on Moses’ heart.  Moses still has passion about the injustice that he sees being done, but he is able to reign it in and give a more productive outcome.

As a result, Moses is accepted.  Moses finds a home.  Moses even finds a wife.  Moses develops a meaningful life, even though he is a murderer at the beginning of this story.  God can always use us if we are willing to work on our sinful desires and learn to tame them.

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Year 7, Day 50: Exodus 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Notice the change within the context of Egypt as we jump from Genesis to Exodus.  No longer is the story being written out of the perspective of respect.  No longer do we see Pharaoh’s and Joseph’s relationship affecting the story.  Of course, over 400 years have gone by, so why would those relationships affect the story?  That would be like us in the modern day respecting one another because of the relationship of people who live before America ever became a country in the first place!  It makes sense that Pharaoh would now be afraid of the massive number of Hebrew people and forget about Joseph.  I don’t fault the Pharaoh at all for being fearful of these Hebrews.  I will fault him for many things in this story, but not this.

What I do want to lift up out of the story today is the respect that these midwives have for life.  They know Pharaoh’s order.  They no doubt know the consequences for disobeying Pharaoh’s orders.  Yet, they don’t obey Pharaoh anyways.  The Hebrew babies continue to be born and live!  These midwives are willing to put their own life on the line for the sake of the life off these babies.

There isn’t any reason for these women to do this other than their respect of life.  They are Egyptian midwives, so it isn’t like these Hebrew people are family.  The midwives are not likely being paid great sums of money to turn their heads the other way.  The Hebrew people are being treated as slaves, so I wouldn’t expect them to be overly wealthy.  As I just said, the Hebrew people are looked upon as slaves, so it isn’t like they command much respect in Egypt, either.  These midwives are letting the Hebrew children live simply because it is the right thing to do.

I want to lift this up today.  Here is a group of people who are willing to disobey the orders of superiors when the orders are not just.  This is a group of people who are willing to compromise their own livelihood – perhaps even life – for the right thing.  They are not getting their ethics from the expectations of the culture around them.  They are judging right from wrong from a code of ethics that dwells within them.

God loves them for it.

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Year 7, Day 49: Genesis 50

Theological Commentary: Click Here

I really love Joseph’s maturity in this passage.  There are three significant events with which we can see this maturity.  Let’s look at each one individually.

First, Joseph experiences the death of his father.  It is not easy to lose a parent, especially when the relationship is good and the feelings between child and parent is one of respect.  Joseph valued his father’s role.  However, notice that Joseph doesn’t mourn with abandon when he dies.  Joseph does lose himself.  Joseph’s world isn’t over.  Joseph mourns maturely.  He lets the sadness within him out, but he is able to compose himself and move on after the fact.  He is able to keep his promise to bury his father as well as continue to be a good servant to Pharaoh.

Then, we see Joseph go before Pharaoh.  Joseph is mature enough to go humbly.  He asks for permission to leave.  He does not go in making demands; he does not go in a wreck of a man.  Notice how Pharaoh responds.  Pharaoh gives him time to go.  But Pharaoh also gives him supplies. There appears to be a great number of people who go with Joseph to mourn.  Pharaoh seems to give more than his blessing; he gives him enough of a retinue that the people of Canaan take notice!

The third place that we see the maturity of Joseph is when his brothers come before him.  Naturally, I can see them being a bit concerned.  They could easily have thought that Joseph was just treating them nicely out of respect for their father.  After all, they had hurt the very man who was now Pharaoh’s greatest aide.  But I love Joseph’s perspective.  Joseph isn’t focused on who hurt him.  Joseph is focused on how God was able to work through it.  Joseph has the maturity to be focused on what God has done through him rather than what others have done to him.

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