Tag: Sin

Morning Musing: Exodus 32:21-24

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“Then Moses asked Aaron, ‘What did these people do to you that you have led them into such a grave sin?’ ‘Don’t be enraged, my Lord,’ Aaron replied. ‘You yourself knew that the people are intent on evil. They said to me, “Make God’s for us who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt – we don’t know what has happened to him!” So I said to them, “Whoever has gold, take it off,” and they gave it to me. When I threw it into the fire, out came this calf!'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I once got grounded from watching TV for a week. I was in grade school, and I don’t have any recollection of what I had done to be in trouble. On the Saturday morning of that week, though, I was up early and found myself alone in our den…where the TV was. Yes, I turned the TV on, and, yes, I got caught fairly quickly. When my dad asked why I had done that, I remember offering up a reverse psychology excuse that I knew I watched too much TV anyway, and that having the extended punishment duration I knew would be coming would probably be good for me. Much to his credit, I’m pretty sure my dad kept a straight face the whole time. As far as excuses for bad behavior go, that one was pretty terrible. But at least it wasn’t as bad as Aaron’s here was. Let’s talk today about what may be the funniest scene in the entirety of the Scriptures.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 32:17-18

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“When Joshua heard the sound of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, ‘There is a sound of war in the camp.’ But Moses replied, ‘It’s not the sound of a victory cry and not the sound of a cry of defeat; I hear the sound of singing.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Many years ago, I read a book that was more transformative in my thinking about sin than anything else I’ve ever read save the Scriptures themselves. It was called The Smell of Sin and the Fresh Air of Grace by Don Everts. The basic premise is that in order to understand grace more fully, we need to understand sin more truly. To this end, Everts, in beautifully poetic prose, starts the book with an exploration of the ways the culture around us (at the Enemy’s direction) falsely portrays sin. What we see here falls right in line with one of the descriptions he gives. Let’s talk about forbidden fun and the reality of sin.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 7:15

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“For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

As a parent, you quickly learn that every different age your kids go through has its challenges, but also its joys. They’re adorable when they’re babies, but you don’t get any sleep. Toddlers are great comic relief, but the tantrums get pretty old. When they’re in the no man’s land of early- to middle-elementary school they’re the most fun because of how much they are drawn to just play, but that’s also when they can start to become little punks. Well, I’ve got two right now that are teenagers. (Now there’s a sentence that makes you start feeling old…) Teenagers have attitudes. And emotions. In spades. But they are also reaching the point that they are starting to be able to meaningfully process the world around them in ways that reflect real critical thinking. You can start having an actual conversation with a teenager in ways other stages don’t quite allow. They also ask good questions that desire real answers. Today’s post is the result of one of those good questions. Maybe you’ve asked this one before. Here are some of my thoughts.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 27:1-8

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“You are to construct the altar of acacia wood. The altar must be square, 7.5 feet long, and 7.5 feet wide; it must be 4.5 feet high. Make horns for it on its four corners; the horns are to be of one piece. Overlay it with bronze. Make its pots for removing ashes, and its shovels, basins, meat forks, and firepans; make all its utensils of bronze. Construct a grate for it of bronze mesh, and make four bronze rings on the mesh at its four corners. Set it below, under the altar’s ledge, so that the mesh comes halfway up the altar. Then make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. The poles are to be inserted into the rings so that the poles are on two sides of the altar when it is carried. Construct the altar with boards so that it is hollow. They are to make it just as it was shown to you on the mountain.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The sacrificial system formed the heart of Israel’s worship of Yahweh. As the apostle Paul would later explain, the just consequence for sin is death. When sin occurs, a life that belongs to God (because all life belongs to God as He is the creator of all life) is being taken from Him. If that life is not return to God, it will remain separated from Him. If it is to be reconciled to God, though, it must be returned to Him. If we don’t have our own lives any longer because they have been returned to God, then we are without life, or dead. Relationships aren’t possible with the dead, though, and God created us to be in relationship with Him. The sacrificial system took a means of worship the people already understood and graciously made it a way for their sins to be covered by the substitutionary death of an animal so they could approach God’s presence. Because of all this, the altar was really important. Let’s talk about the alter here and explore some of its details.

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Digging in Deeper: Ephesians 4:1-6

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“Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope at your calling – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the ideas I have set before you fairly often over the years of our doing this together is that the Gospel lies at the heart of all of our stories. That one story is so powerful that we just can’t get away from it. In just nearly every story we tell, you can find echoes of the Gospel in some form or fashion. Sometimes you have to look pretty carefully for it, but it is just nearly always there. That’s why I can keep coming back here on most Fridays to offer a review of something I’ve watched recently and talk about its Gospel implications with you. Well, I finally finished watching through something new this week (really new this time, not just new to me but a year and a half old for everyone else), and today we’re going to talk for just a few minutes about its Gospel implications. This series is based on a video game franchise set in a post-apocalyptic future. And while video game franchises set in a post-apocalyptic future are about a dime a dozen, this one has been around for a pretty long time and has remained pretty popular for most of that time. Let’s talk today about the Amazon Prime series, Fallout.

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