Category: Morning Musings

Morning Musing: Exodus 20:12

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“Honor your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When scholars examine the Ten Commandments, they often group them together in two big sets. The first set has to do with our relationship with God. Those are the first four. The second set has to do with our relationship with people. Those are really the last five. This fifth command sometimes gets grouped with the second set, but it doesn’t really belong there. It definitely does not go with the first set, though. It’s really a transitional command to get from one to the next. Let’s talk today about why honoring parents was a big enough deal to God that He included it on this list.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 20:8-11

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“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: You are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work – you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, your livestock, or the resident alien who is within your city gates. For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Some of the fieriest conflicts Jesus had during His ministry were over the Sabbath. Throughout much of the history covered by the Old Testament, Israel didn’t really keep this command very well. After the Babylonian Exile, though, and by the time Jesus came onto the scene, they were positively radical about it. The weight of this command bore heavily on the shoulders of the people. We’ve talked before about the Sabbath when God first introduced it to the people back in chapter 16. Let’s reflect again here on what God was helping the people further understand.

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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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Morning Musing: Exodus 19:7-8

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“After Moses came back, he summoned the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. Then al the people responded together, ‘We will do all that the Lord has spoken.’ So Moses brought the people’s words back to the Lord.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Sometimes it’s hard to fully appreciate how something works until you’ve seen it working a different way. When we want to engage with our heavenly Father today, all we have to do is talk to Him. Because of the presence of the Holy Spirit, He’s always near, and because of Jesus’ constant intercession before Him, He’s always ready to hear. It’s incredible if you think about it. But familiarity can breed contempt, so let’s take a quick glance at how things used to work. Spoiler alert: it’s not the same.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 19:1-2

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“In the third month from the very day the Israelites left the land of Egypt, they came to the Sinai Wilderness. They traveled from Rephidim, came to the Sinai Wilderness, and camped in the wilderness. Israel camped there in front of the mountain.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Here we come at last to a new leg of our journey through Exodus. Everything we have so far encountered has been leading here. No, we are not yet to the Promised Land (and we won’t actually get there on this journey; as far as distance from Egypt goes, this is as far as we’ll get), but we are at the next place where God will reveal Himself to the people in a significant way. More importantly than that, God finally lets the people in on what He is planning with them, on why He did all of this in the first place. We will walk through all of this in the days and weeks ahead of us, but here at the start we encounter something important that I wanted to make sure we didn’t miss. God reveals His character here in a way that mattered to Israel, but which matters even more to us. Let me tell you why.

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