Tag: God’s character

Morning Musing: Exodus 25:1-7

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“The Lord spoke to Moses: ‘Tell the Israelites to take an offering for me. You are to take my offering from everyone who is willing to give. This is the offering you are to receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet yarn; fine linen and goat hair; ram skins dyed red and fine leather; acacia wood; oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx along with other gemstones for mounting on the ephod and breastpiece.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There’s a difference between supporting a cause generally, and supporting a cause when you’ve got some skin in the game. The same thing goes with building a relationship. If you don’t actually invest something of yourself into a relationship, it’s not ever going to be very significant to you. It’ll never really move beyond being much more than a convenience. God was inviting the people of Israel into a relationship with Him. Because He didn’t want them to take this relationship with less than the seriousness with which it was due, He asked them to put some skin in the game. As we get into a whole new section of our journey, let’s talk about what’s going on here as well as what we will encounter over the next few weeks.

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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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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 23:6-9

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“You must not deny justice to a poor person among you in his lawsuit. Stay far away from a false accusations. Do not kill the innocent and the just, because I will not justify the guilty. You must not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and corrupts the words of the righteous. You must not oppress a resident alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be a resident alien because you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Sometimes you come across a passage of Scripture that seems pretty straightforward on an initial reading. A bit closer of an inspection confirms this, but it can also help us see what made sense in the beginning with a little more depth and clarity. These verses once again remind us of the inherently just nature of God’s character. Let’s talk about what’s going on here, and then put them in the bigger context of the larger passage here at the beginning of Exodus 23.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 23:4-5

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“If you come across your enemy’s stray ox or donkey, you must return it to him. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you lying helpless under its load, and you want to refrain from helping it, you must help with it.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I love watching America’s Funniest Videos. I can sit for hours and laugh myself silly watching video after video of people doing crazy things or reacting to things in hilarious ways. The best videos, though, are always the ones in which someone probably gets hurt. There’s just something about a little kid hitting a ball right back into dad’s midsection that you can’t help laughing at. The misfortune of others is an easy thing to laugh at. When the other is someone we consider an enemy, though, the mirth can turn into a bit (or a lot) of schadenfreude. Yet how we treat our enemies matters. God has thoughts about it. Let’s talk about one of those thoughts right here.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 23:1-3

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“You must not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked to be a malicious witness. You must not follow a crowd in wrongdoing. Do not testify in a lawsuit and go along with a crowd to pervert justice. Do not show favoritism to a poor person in his lawsuit.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Justice is hard to obtain. It’s so hard that when someone manages to achieve it, we tell those stories. They get splashed all over the newspapers. Well, that’s not really true anymore. They get splashed all over the Internet. They get made into movies. They become urban legends. Yet this isn’t how things should be. We serve a God who is just. How do we know? Well, because we keep running into passages like this one. God cares about justice and wants His people to care about it as well. Let’s talk through yet another example of this in a law He gave to Israel.

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