Tag: God’s character

Morning Musing: Exodus 34:1-4

1 Comment

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be prepared by morning. Come up Mount Sinai in the morning and stand before me on the mountaintop. No one may go up with you; in fact, no one should be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks and herds are not to graze in front of that mountain. Moses cut two stone tablets like the first ones. He got up early in the morning, and taking the two stone tablets in his hand, he climbed Mount Sinai, just as the Lord had commanded him.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever had to start over? Sometimes, in order to make forward progress, you have to start over. You have to go back to where you began and treat everything you’ve done before like it never happened. This isn’t easy to do. It takes a lot of both humility and courage. But when things aren’t going the way they should, a good reset can get them back on the right track; the track they should have been on all along. As we get into chapter 34 here, Moses and Israel get to start over. Let’s reflect a bit on how incredible this was, and why what we have in Jesus is better.

read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Exodus 33:18-23

Leave a comment

“Then Moses said, ‘Please, let me see your glory.’ He said, ‘I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name “the Lord” before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’ But he added, ‘You cannot see my face, for humans cannot see me and live.’ The Lord said, ‘Here is a place near me. You are to stand on the rock, and when my glory passes by, I will put you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take my hand away, and you will see my back, but my face will not be seen.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Depending on my audience, I’ll occasionally ask a congregation if they’ve ever read the passage in the Bible where God moons someone. When I do that, adults mostly look bemused and a little awkward. Kids snicker or outright giggle. Then they wait for me to tell them where since I’ve whet their curiosity. It’s right here in this very passage. I’m kidding, of course, but it provides a good opener for talking about what exactly Moses is asking God for here and why God responds the way He does. Let’s explore one of the most important requests of God in the Scriptures, and why it is a good one from us to make as well.

Continue reading “Digging in Deeper: Exodus 33:18-23” →

Morning Musing: Matthew 14:1-2

1 Comment

“At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus. ‘This is John the Baptist,’ he told his servants. “He has been raised from the dead, and that’s why miraculous powers are at work in him.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever read something in the Scriptures and wondered how on earth the author could have come to know that particular detail? We don’t encounter this much in the Old Testament, but the Gospel authors all have places where there are details reported they were present to have observed or experienced for themselves. Sometimes they report the conversations that happened in gatherings of priests that included none of Jesus’s followers when they happened. Matthew reports a private conversation between Pilate and his wife. Here he reports what was apparently a private conversation between Herod and his servants. How did they come by this knowledge? Let’s explore that briefly this morning through the lens of an interesting little connection that’s easy to miss.

Read the rest…

Morning Musing: Exodus 32:33-35

4 Comments

“The Lord replied to Moses, ‘Whoever has sinned against me I will erase from my book. Now go, lead the people to the place I told you about; see, my angel will go before you. But on the day I settle accounts, I will hold them accountable for their sin.’ And the Lord inflicted a plague on the people for what they did with the calf Aaron had made.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the most incredible aspects of God’s character is that He is a perfect combination of justice and mercy. This mixture is not 50-50 like one we might make. Instead, it’s 100-100. He’s 100% just and 100% merciful. He’s all of both at exactly the same time. We can trust that He will always do the right thing, but He will always do the right thing in the most merciful way possible. We trust that in part because of passages like this one. Let’s talk about what’s going on here.

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Exodus 32:25-29

5 Comments

“Moses saw that the people were out of control, for Aaron had let them get out of control, making them a laughingstock to their enemies. And Moses stood at the camp’s entrance and said, ‘Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.’ And all the Levites gathered around him. He told them, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says, “Every man fasten his sword to his side; go back and forth through the camp from entrance to entrance, and each of you kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.”‘ The Levites did as Moses commanded, and about three thousand men fell dead that day among the people. Afterward Moses said, ‘Today you have been dedicated to the Lord, since each man went against his son and his brother. Therefore you have brought a blessing on yourselves today.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When we were growing up we had a dog named Ginger. She was the reddest golden retriever I’ve ever seen, and she was the best dog in the world. When she was a puppy, she would get so excited when my dad got home from work that she would pee on the floor. If a person did something like that, we’d say they got out of control. When people get out of control, sometimes it takes extreme measures to get their attention again. The people of Israel who joined in the worship of the golden calf got out of control and had to be stopped. This next part of the story is hard. Really hard. Let’s talk about what’s going on here.

Read the rest…