Month: January 2024

Morning Musing: 19:23-26

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“Moses responded to the Lord, ‘The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, since you warned us: Put a boundary around the mountain and consecrate it.’ And the Lord replied to him, ‘Go down and come back with Aaron. But the priests and the people must not break through to come up to the Lord, or he will break out in anger against them.’ So Moses went down to the people and told them.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Sometimes as a parent you have to repeat yourself to your kids. I know there are experts who insist otherwise, but some things are important enough you have to say them more than once because you know they’re not going to be fully or properly understood the first time. As we come to the end of chapter 19 here, Moses doesn’t understand why God is so worried about the people’s coming up the mountain. God knows the people better than Moses does. Let’s talk about what’s going on here and reflect again with gratitude on Jesus.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 19:16-22

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“On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning, a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud blast from the ram’s horn, so that all the people in the camp shuddered. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke because the Lord came down on it in fire. Its smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently. As the sound of the ram’s horn grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai at the top of the mountain. Then the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and he went up. The Lord directed Moses, ‘Go down and warn the people not to break through to see the Lord; otherwise many of them will die. Even the priests who come near the Lord must consecrate themselves, or the Lord will break out in anger against them.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What is it like to be in the presence of God? We often like to imagine that such an experience is one of great peace and tranquility. Or perhaps we imagine it to be something that is gentle and encouraging. Yet while those ideas may have some truth to them in a certain set of circumstances, whenever we see God show up in power in the Scriptures, the experience is quite a bit different from that. Let’s talk about the wild scene we see unfolding here and why we should be so grateful for Jesus.

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Lost and Found

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This week as we continue in our series, Leverage, we are talking about the why behind Jesus’ call for us to use our resources for the sake of those around us. Through a story about a shepherd with a lost sheep, Jesus helps us see that the why here is intimately connected to the character of our God. Let’s dig into this vital truth together.

Lost and Found

I lost a sock in the wash the other day. I finally found it Wednesday night. The first thing I exclaimed when I did, though, was, “Oh great, now this will mess up my illustration for Sunday.” For a full two weeks there, though, if you were to go and open my sock drawer, you would have found one sock neatly folded and lying on top of the rest of the rolled pairs underneath it. I’ve lost socks before, but they usually turned up faster than this one. As it turns out, it got stuck in the arm of my light jacket. Since the last time I wore and washed it, though, it got cold and it just sat in our coat closet with the sock sitting in its sleeve until I put it on Wednesday and made my happy discovery. I’ll confess, though, as much as that one, lone sock lying on the top of the pile bothered me every single time I opened my sock drawer, I didn’t invest much time searching for its sole mate. It was just a sock after all. If I didn’t ever find the match, I would have eventually thrown it away (at which point, of course, I would have immediately discovered the other one). I have other pairs. And, when those wear out, I’ll just buy a new pack. I actually look forward to doing that every few years. There aren’t very many things that feel better than a brand-new pair of socks. 

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Digging in Deeper: Deuteronomy 6:7

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“Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Children typically wind up looking like their parents. Now, this doesn’t always happen. Sometimes the relationship between fathers and their sons, between mothers and their daughters, winds up with their becoming completely different from one another, but that’s more of an exception than a rule. In most cases, the resemblance is striking – and I don’t just mean physically. In many cases, this is intentional. Parents themselves grew up really enjoying a particular hobby or activity, and as a result, they work rather diligently to teach their kids to enjoy it as well. Sometimes this results in a total whiff (like my attempting to pass down a love for cartoons to my kids which failed rather spectacularly as I am the only one in the house with any kind of an interest in pretty much anything animated). But sometimes we manage to knock it out of the park (like I did with my passion for Kansas basketball and Kansas City sports teams). I’m thinking about all of this today because I recently (and finally!) got to watch the latest installment in the Ghostbusters franchise, Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The movie itself doesn’t have much of anything to do with this, but it got me thinking about it all the same. Let’s talk about the film and I’ll explain why.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 19:9-15

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“The Lord said to Moses, ‘I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear when I speak with you and will always believe you.’ Moses reported the people’s words to the Lord, and the Lord told Moses, ‘Go to the people and consecrate them tomorrow. They must wash their clothes and be prepared by the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. Put boundaries for the people all around the mountain and say: Be careful that you don’t go up on the mountain or touch its base. Anyone who touches the mountain must be put to death. No hand may touch him; instead he will be stoned or shot with arrows and not live, whether animal or human. When the ram’s horn sounds a long blast, they may go up the mountain.’ Then Moses came down from the mountain to the people and consecrated them, and they washed their clothes. He said to the people, ‘Be prepared by the third day. Do not have sexual relations with women.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

As a parent, one of the things you learn pretty naturally (mostly because you experienced it with your own parents) is that different circumstances require a different tone of voice in order to communicate their relative seriousness. If you’re playing a game or having a casual conversation, you’ll choose a tone of voice that is light and gentle. If your kid is about to run into the street, you are going to use a loud and stern tone. It is vital that they understand how important it is to not run into the road. As God prepared to deliver some incredibly important commands to the people of Israel, He used the equivalent of a really stern voice. Let’s talk about what’s going on here.

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