Tag: God’s character

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 19:1-2

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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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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 17:14-16

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“The Lord then said to Moses, ‘Write this down on a scroll as a reminder and recite it to Joshua: I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek under heaven.’ And Moses built and altar and named it, ‘The Lord is My Banner.’ He said, ‘Indeed, my hand is lifted up toward the Lord’s throne. The Lord will be at war with Amalek from generation to generation.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever had someone you know do something completely out of character when you were with them? That kind of thing usually catches us totally off guard and leaves us wondering if we know them nearly as well as we thought we did. Walking through the various Old Testament narratives can give us that kind of an experience with God. What we see right here is a good example of this. If you are used to thinking of God as good and gracious and loving and patient and gentle and kind, seeing His response to the Amalekites’ totally unprovoked attack on Israel seems to come straight out of left field. Let’s talk about what’s going on here, and why God might have responded like this.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 17:5-7

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“The Lord answered Moses, ‘Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take the staff you struck the Nile with in your hand and go. I am going to stand there in front of you on the rock at Horeb; when you hit the rock, water will come out of it and the people will drink.’ Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. He named the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites complained, and because they tested the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Think for a minute about a really positive experience you had a long time ago. I’m talking about one in which you learned a good and important lesson that has stuck with you over generations. Those are good things both to have and to remember. But not all of the experiences we have that stick with us are good. Sometimes it is something bad we did that has shaped our outlook for the rest of our lives. That’s what happened to Israel here. This may not seem like such a big deal, but it shows back up at both the halfway point and near the end of the Scriptures to remind us not to do it. Let’s talk about what they did, how God responded, and what it might mean for us.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 16:24-30

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“So they set it aside until morning as Moses commanded, and it didn’t stink or have maggots in it. ‘Eat it today,’ Moses said, ‘because today is a Sabbath to the Lord. Today you won’t find any in the field. For six days you will gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.’ Yet on the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they did not find any. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘How long will you refuse to keep my commands and instructions? Understand that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he will give you two days’ worth of bread. Each of you stay where you are; no one is to leave his place on the seventh day.’ So the people rested on the seventh day.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the most natural things in the world is for children to trust their parents. At some point they become more skeptical or even outright untrusting, but while this may be because their parents earned such suspicion (don’t ever lie to your kids, even in jest; that does far more damage to them than you could imagine), more often it is because sin has crept further into their hearts, leading them to a greater mistrust of everything. That’s one of the things sin does: it cultivates mistrust and doubt in our hearts. Because of this, trusting in God is not natural for us. As a result, God gives us things to help us learn to trust. Let’s talk about one of the most important ones He gave to Israel.

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