Category: Digging in Deeper

Digging in Deeper: 2 Peter 1:16

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“For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Religion is an interesting thing. It’s a powerful thing. Some try to argue that it’s a bad thing. But the truth is that religion is just a thing. How it’s used, who’s doing the using, and for what purpose determines exactly what kind of a thing it is. It’s not all bad, and it’s ignorant to argue otherwise. Neither, however, is it all good. Only a fool would think that. It has to be taken on a case-by-case basis, and some religions are better than others. But try as we might, we can’t escape it. We’re drawn to it. That’s part of what gives it such power. What has me thinking about all of this is my recently finishing both watching and reading Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic, Dune, in which religion plays a profound role. Let’s talk about it.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 24:12-18

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“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Come up to me on the mountain and stay there so that I may give you the stone tablets with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.’ So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua and went up the mountain of God. He told the elders, ‘Wait here for us until we return to you. Aaron and Hur are here with you. Whoever has a dispute should go to them.’ When Moses went up the mountain, the cloud covered it. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day he called to Moses from the cloud. The appearance of the Lord’s glory to the Israelites was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop. Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We live in an instant society. We are so used to getting just about everything immediately now, that the idea of waiting for something for just about any length of time is wildly unappealing to us. And yet, things that happen instantly are rarely as good as those which take a little longer to develop. This is the case with all sorts of different things in life. As much as we want to hurry up, so often we have to wait. When God called Moses to Himself to give him the covenant laws for the people, it didn’t happen overnight. In fact, it took a pretty long time. Now that the covenant is in place, let’s take a look at Moses’ going to receive it and the events surrounding his departure.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 24:3-8

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“Moses came and told the people all the commands of the Lord and all the ordinances. Then all the people responded with a single voice, ‘We will do everything that the Lord has commanded.’ And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early the next morning and set up an altar and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel at the base of the mountain. Then he sent out young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. Moses took half the blood and set it in basins; the other half of the blood he splattered on the altar. He then took the covenant scroll and read it aloud to the people. They responded, ‘We will do and obey all that the Lord has commanded.’ Moses took the blood, splattered it on the people, and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you concerning all these words.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the things I always talk about with couples when doing their premarital counseling is that marriage is supposed to be a covenant, not a contract. We don’t distinguish very well between those two ideas today, and often think about marriage in contract terms rather than covenantal ones much to the detriment of our marriage relationships. In the ancient world, people were more accustomed to the idea of covenants and better understood just how serious they really were. After having heard the basic contours of the covenant God wanted to make with them, the people agreed to His terms and went forward with the covenant. Let’s take a look here at part of how this process unfolded.

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Digging in Deeper: Proverbs 13:6

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“Righteousness guards people of integrity, but wickedness undermines the sinner.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Graduation season is always an interesting time. The primary reason for this is that it gives us the chance to reflect on the parting words given to graduates by a whole variety of speakers. Every one of these invited guests is there to tell his or her audience the things they presumably need to know in order to experience success in life as they move on to their next chapter. Sometimes the advice is good and wise; sometimes less so. Sometimes the advice is fairly generic and bland, while other times it can generate reactions in the broader culture that are a bit…livelier. The graduation speech given by Harrison Butker, the superstar kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs seems to have fallen into this latter category. Let’s explore what he actually had to say, some of the ways the culture has reacted to it, and see what we can do with it.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 24:1-2

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“Then he said to Moses, ‘Go up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders, and bow in worship at a distance. Moses alone is to approach the Lord, but the others are not to approach, and the people are not to go up with him.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Everything has to start somewhere. The nation of Israel as we know it throughout the rest of the Old Testament period and to at least some extent on through to today started with the events of this chapter. What we will look at over the next few posts is the covenant ceremony in which God made things official with the people. It’s an interesting affair, to say the least. Right here at the start, though, something caught my attention that doesn’t have anything to do with the rest of the chapter. As we prepare to talk about God’s officially bringing the people of Israel into a new covenant relationship with Him, let’s talk for just a minute about human leadership and failure.

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