Tag: Obedience

Morning Musing: Exodus 40:1-33

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“The Lord spoke to Moses: ‘You are to set up the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, on the first day of the first month’. . . .Moses did everything just as the Lord had commanded him. The tabernacle was set up in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month. . . .Next Moses set up the surrounding courtyard for the tabernacle and the altar and hung a screen for the gate of the courtyard. So Moses finished the work.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What does God want from us? More than anything else, He wants a relationship with us. He wants us to be in a right and proper relationship with Him. How do we know when we have that? Because we do what He says. Our faithful, willing obedience is the first and best sign that we understand who He is, who we are, and are willing to accept those two truths wholly. Our obedience is the best proof that we are right with Him. In this final description of Moses’ work with the tabernacle, this is where the emphasis lies: that Moses did what God said. Let’s talk through what we see here and about why this is a good pointer to something that is still true for us today.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 32:15-16

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“Then Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides – inscribed front and back. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was God’s writing, engraved on the tablets.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

All the words of the Scriptures matter. If we are going to understand them properly, that’s a pretty fundamental point for interpretation. The apostle Paul made as much clear when he said that every word of the Scriptures was breathed out by God. Our lack of understanding of some of them doesn’t mean they don’t matter. It means we don’t understand them. Interludes like this one often seem out of place as they interrupt the flow of the larger story in which they sit. Let’s talk about why this bit got included here.

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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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The Gifts of Advent: Matthew 1:24

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“When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Think about the last time you got a gift that you didn’t want. While I can’t remember the gifts specifically, I remember a few Christmases when I opened something and had to swallow my disappointment so as not to hurt the feelings of the giver. Sometimes gifts that seem hard in a moment, though, prove later to be among the best we have ever received. This next gift of Advent we are going to talk about this morning doesn’t feel like a gift at all at first. Sometimes it feels more like a curse. Yet if we will receive it, it will prove to be utterly transformative in our lives. Let’s talk today about the gift of obedience.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 14:15-16

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“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to break camp. As for you, lift up your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Prayer is important stuff. Vitally important. One of the things I find myself telling my congregation more and more frequently lately is that prayer is one of the three essential things you need to be pursuing regularly and intentionally if you want to grow in your faith (the others are engagement with the Scriptures and a local body of Christ). I have several times heard messages about prayer that rightly remind folks that prayer is not a substitute for doing something. In many cases, it is the something we most need to be doing if we want to see positive changes come to a hard situation. Prayer is essentially for getting God involved in a situation to make things happen. What we see here, though, brings a much needed balance to all of this. Let’s check out God’s response to Moses and the Israelites’ panicked cries to Him when they spotted the Egyptian army bearing down on them.

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