Tag: Trusting God

Morning Musing: Exodus 22:29-30

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“You must not hold back offerings from your harvest or your vats. Give me the firstborn of your sons. Do the same with your cattle and your flock. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days, but on the eighth day you are to give them to me.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There’s an awful scene from the beginning of the movie Braveheart where William Wallace has just gotten married and some English soldiers arrive in town and learn about the wedding. The soldiers demand their rights of jus primae noctis (“the right of the first night”) as extended to them by King Edward “Longshanks” the ruler of the land. This meant they were entitled to sleep with a woman on her wedding night before she and her new husband have the opportunity to come together. The actual history of the practice is a bit murky, but it was basically part of a ruler’s demand of the first and best of his people. Reading this next law, I’m reminded of that scene. God here demands the first and best from His people. How is this any different from what the English soldiers in Braveheart did? Let’s explore that together.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 20:17

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“Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

In the world of preachers, there is a phrase that occasionally gets thrown around when someone says something that is particularly profound or is worded in an especially memorable way. “That’s preach.” The idea is that you could take that line and build a whole sermon around it. Of course, a sermon built around an idea that isn’t directly informed by Scripture isn’t a sermon at all, but we won’t get into homiletical nitpicking right now. I say all of that to say this, one of the most preachable ideas I’ve ever heard (and which came out of a serious engagement with the Scriptures) was this big idea from Andy Stanley: “There’s no win in comparison.” He was talking about the dangers of comparing ourselves to others, but this danger is rooted in a sin whose prohibition in the Law of Moses is the caboose of the Ten Commandments. Let’s talk for a few minutes about coveting.

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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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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 17:1-4

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“The entire Israelite community left the Wilderness of Sin, moving from one place to the next according to the Lord’s command. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So the people complained to Moses, ‘Give us water to drink.’ ‘Why are you complaining to me?’ Moses replied to them. ‘Why are you testing the Lord?’ But the people thirsted there for water and grumbled against Moses. They said, ‘Why did you ever bring us up from Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?’ Then Moses cried out to the Lord, ‘What should I do with these people? In a little while they will stone me!'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I remember going to music stores when I was in high school that were absolutely filled with CDs, the latest technology. There were rows and rows and stacks and stacks of them. It was glorious. Now, in an ironic time jump, records outsell CDs, and it’s not close. I haven’t bought a record from this generation yet, but I listened to plenty of them from their first go-round. I’m not sure if they still break like they used to, but in the past, records would occasionally get a snag in them that would cause them to stick in one spot and repeat the same phrase over and over again. That’s where we get the phrase, “like a broken record.” I say all of that to ask this: Have you ever been around someone who was like a broken record? Israel was. Let’s talk about how, why, and why perhaps we’re not so different.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 16:31-34

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“The house of Israel named the substance manna. It resembled coriander seed, was white, and tasted like wafers made with honey. Moses said, ‘This is what the Lord has commanded: “Two quarts of it are to be preserved throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.”‘ Moses told Aaron, ‘Take a container and put two quarts of manna in it. Then place it before the Lord to be preserved throughout your generations.’ As the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron placed it before the testimony to be preserved.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Around my house, I have a frustratingly well-developed reputation for forgetting things. I’m getting better. I didn’t used to be like that. Throughout seminary I used to amaze my classmates because I never used a calendar. I didn’t write down any assignments beyond what was already in the syllabi. I just remembered everything. Now, as much information as my brain retains, short-term things are worthless to me if I don’t write them down. And set reminders for them on my phone. We are a forgetful people. We always have been. Let’s talk today about God’s final instructions to Israel regarding the food He provided for them and why remembering is so important.

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