Tag: Exodus

Digging in Deeper: Exodus 23:23-28

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“For my angel will go before you and bring you to the land of the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. Do not bow in worship to their gods, and do not serve them. Do not imitate their practices. Instead, demolish them and smash their sacred pillars to pieces. Serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water. I will remove illnesses from you. No woman will miscarry or be childless in your land. I will give you the full number of your days. I will clauses the people ahead of you to feel terror and will throw into confusion all the nations you come to. I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you in retreat. I will send hornets in front of you, and they will drive the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hethites away from you.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the books on the shelves in my office wrestles with the question of God’s character. The title makes the question pretty plain: Is God a Moral Monster? It tackles several of the most challenging stories in the Old Testament that are often presented as evidence for God’s being just that. One of the subjects the author, Paul Copan, spends a lot of time on is the Israelite entrance into the land of Canaan which came at the expense of the peoples already living there. The Exodus narrative doesn’t cover that particular journey, but God does give the people a bit of a preview of coming attractions. So, let’s wrestle a bit with it.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 23:20-22

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“I am going to send an angel before you to protect you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared. Be attentive to him and listen to him. Do not defy him, because he will not forgive your acts of rebellion, for my name is in him. But if you will carefully obey him and do everything I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The idea of angels is a pretty rich and varied one in human religious history. Nearly every culture has stories of angels in some form or fashion. Angels themselves are portrayed in all sorts of ways. And indeed, the Scriptures present angels in several different forms. Each kind seems to have a different role in the administration of God’s kingdom. Here, in the concluding statement on the first block of law, we find God’s telling the people about an angel that will serve as His representative as they go from Sinai to the Promised land. Let’s talk about a couple of ideas regarding the identity of this angel and the authority God has given to him.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 23:18-19

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“You must not offer the blood of my sacrifices with anything leavened. The fat of my festival offering must not remain until morning. Bring the best of the firstfruits of your land to the house of the Lord your God. You must not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself tasked with having to get the sound working for an outdoor movie event. I had all of the supplies I needed, but I wasn’t sure how to connect them all in a way that made the audio come out where I wanted it to. I needed instructions. Anytime we do something new, we need instructions. Just about everything you buy from the store comes with instructions. When we understand the instructions, we’ll know how to do whatever it is we are trying to do. God was creating a people who were being called to follow Him. The trouble was, that kind of thing hadn’t ever existed before. They needed instructions. Thus the law. Sometimes, though, just like instructions can be hard to understand, so can the laws God gave to Israel. Here’s a classic example. Let’s see what we can do with it.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 23:14-17

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“Celebrate a festival in my honor three times a year. Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you are to eat unleavened bread from seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, because you came out of Egypt in that month. No one is to appear before me empty-handed. Also observe the Festival of Harvest with the first fruits of your produce from what you sow in the field, and observe the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field. Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What kind of celebrations do you have as a regular part of your family’s rhythm? Are they all calendar holidays, or do you have some that are more personalized than that? Those celebrations, whatever they happen to be, are more significant than you might realize in terms of shaping your understanding of the world and how it works. Celebrations like that give us a framework for what we understand to be true. This doesn’t necessarily mean they help us get the truth right, but they create a belief framework for us. In the same way, they frame out for us what is right and what kinds of things are important. When God was going through the process of establishing Israel as a people, He gave them instructions to create some regular celebrations as a part of their rhythm. Let’s take a look at the first real introduction He gives to these here.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 23:13

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“Pay strict attention to everything I have said to you. You must not invoke the names of other gods; they must not be heard on your lips.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There are few things that give rise to cynicism quite so effectively as religion. Not often religion that is true and genuine, but religion that is pursued for the sake of religion. When people who don’t really believe in a particular deity nonetheless speak and act like they do for the sake of image or power or something else along those lines, not only do they grow cynical about the whole thing, but so do the people who see their show. This is one possible reason behind this next command God gives the people of Israel. Let’s explore this a bit further, and talk about why it still matters today.

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