DAY 31

GETTING RIGHT SIDE UP

Exodus 25 & 26 and Matthew 20:17-34

Exodus 25-26 brings to my mind two words: details and beauty. For many years I was an engineer and worked with terrific engineers; people who pay attention to the details. Whenever I read these texts I do grin a bit because of the precise directions. In fact God says, “Do it exactly as the pattern I show you” in 25:9. Our ability as humans to create all these kinds of details flows from God. (Now I know we say all these things come from God, but it is fun to see it spelled out this way). If you want to see pictures and sketches check out “the-tabernacle-place.com".

Beyond the details is the beauty of what God is directing be built: gold, silver, purple cloth, fine wood and more. The internet is full of images that try and imagine how the finished product turned out. I was just in Charleston (about 4 days ago) and we were in several different beautiful churches. I missed my own, but I always love to see how different people over the years have continued the effort to make the place where God will dwell – beautiful. (and yes God dwells in us so we need to be about the details and beauty in us.)

In our Christian churches the sense of purpose to the design of both the floor plan and the furniture continues. I won’t try and unpack the meaning and the parallels of these in this blog, but it is fascinating and there are good books on the subject. There is a desire on our part to worship God in what we often call the “beauty of holiness” and we are reading about the beginning of this practice today. The risk is that we not turn our buildings into idols, and that we not become so inwardly focused that we forget our mission. 

All of this is at God’s direction, build it he tells them so that “I may dwell in their midst” 25:8. The word which we translate as tabernacle could be translated to “tent” or “dwell” with.   

This tabernacle with its furnishings will become the center of life for the Israelites. It will be the place where they commune with God. After many generations go by there will be another place that fulfills the same function in a much grander way. Offering and sacrifices will be made there. It is the Temple in Jerusalem.

The temple in Jerusalem is where Jesus is going in Matthew 20. He has set his face towards Jerusalem since Matthew 16 (Luke uses that exact phrase in Lk 9:53, but the episode is the same). We will read about a number of episodes where Jesus challenges the religious of the day, right in the Temple.

We are reading in the Old Testament about the construction of the first manmade place where God will dwell with his people. Tomorrow there will be even more details. Yet Jesus is on his way to challenge all of it because it has become corrupted. In fact he will replace it!

We see pieces of these corrupt practices right in Jesus midst. We see James and John’s mother, she perceives Jesus as Messiah, she makes a request of a person who in the system of the day would normally allot personal places of honor when his administration comes to power. That is how it is done in the Temple.

In contrast we encounter two “blind men”. (I put that in quotes because they “see” who Jesus really is, Son of David.) They are told to be quiet. Why? Because it has all gotten "upside down".  The important religious people don’t waste their time with the poor and downtrodden.

Think about how upside it has all gotten. We have been reading the laws that care for the poor and sick. By Jesus’ day they are on the outside, judged as somehow being beyond God’s help. 

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to turn it right-side-up. How? He has told us three times: See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised.’

My main thought yesterday was that God goes to amazing lengths to choose us. Today we see the amazing lengths he goes to dwell with us. From the building of this traveling desert tabernacle, to the Temple in Jerusalem, and ultimately to Christ Jesus – who when He has completed his work makes it possible for God to dwell in our hearts (Ephesians 3:17, 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, and 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 to name a few). I know that is getting ahead of ourselves a bit, but that is what the story of the Bible is about. God revealing himself and revealing how much he is pursuing a relationship with us. We have already see this in Genesis 3 as God was walking in the garden in the cool of the evening seeking to be with Adam (Genesis 3:8). God goes to great lengths to keep US right side up.

DAY30

ITIS PERSONAL – FOR GOD

Exodus 23 & 24 and Matthew 20:1-16

When God chooses what lengths do you think He will go?

Exodus 23-24& Matthew 20:1-16 are amazing.Exodus 23 is a continuation of what we were reading yesterday, and God’s concern for the poor continues. His determination that His people be people of integrity is further spelled out. Then we begin to see God describing the rhythm of the life, work only six days a week, and celebrate festivals (more on this later). There is the first command about not allowing other cultures to draw them away from God (more on this later).

There is this strange law about not boiling a kid in its mother's milk (23:19). I will share some thoughts about that in a few days. Today I want to dig a little deeper into God’s behavior and this ritual of the sprinkling of blood.

Look closely at Exodus 24. There is a special hierarchy. The people stay at the foot of the mountain. The elders go part way up the mountain. Moses goes all the way up. He receives the Covenant and the people agree to live by it. Seems to all be proper and make sense.

Then people are then sprinkled with blood and that doesn't make sense to our 21st century minds. Before I try and unpack this dramatic action, let’s finish the scene.

It then says Moses and all the elders went up the mountain and “saw” God. Now they don’t describe what God looks like. They describe the payment (like sapphire).It makes sense that they did not look upon God, but had their heads bowed down.Nonetheless they are in the presence of the Most High God, they have “seen”Him, and they are alive. Amazing! There is more though. They “beheld God and ate and drank.” Eating a meal and blood are two ancient expressions of bonding between parties. It is amazing that one of the parties is God.

If I circle back to the sprinkling of blood, I realize that it may appear a bit savage. Blood and blood sacrifice is not proper dinner conversation. We came across this first with Abel. We interacted with it again with Abram and God, as a Covenant was ratified by the animals being cut in half with a flaming torch and a smoking pot passing in between. As a priest I sprinkle people with water.Sometimes I can be a little overzealous and I see people’s reaction when it lands on them. Sometimes they flinch! I cannot imagine if it were blood.

Yet we know what blood does and therefore what it signifies. It signifies life. To be sprinkled with blood is to say “my life is bonded to yours” – that is one way to describe a covenant relationship. It is deeper than a treaty or contract: it is lives bonded together. (Similar to a marriage which is one way our relationship to God is often expressed in marital terms).

Moses then goes up and spends 40 days and nights with God in a cloud that had the appearance of a devouring fire. (Do you think got much sleep?)

In all of this your first reaction may be trying to imagine yourself in it;a natural reaction. It is important to do so, however today I would like to pause and think about God and what God does when he chooses people. He is pretty particular about things, isn't He? The level of detail is amazing and it is going to get even more so. He shows great involvement and concern for His people. He is concerned about how they will live and how they will treat others. I sense He is concerned for a number of reasons and I could go describe them, but I think it would dilute my main thought about God.

My main thought is that God goes to amazing lengths to choose us. That is what He is doing in Matthew, going to great lengths for everyone. That is what He is doing in Exodus. He eats with Moses and the Elders, and He bonds himself to us through the Blood of the Covenant. This bond, just as the bond made with Abraham in Genesis will lead this faithful covenant-keeping God to go to the Cross. Today I pray you can see that not only have the people agreed to keep the Covenant, but so has God.  

DAY 29

LAWS & HEARTS

Exodus 21 & 22 and Matthew 19

Exodus 21-22 laws, lots of them, and we start with laws about…slaves. OK we knew at some point that we were going to get here, to the place of all these laws. In these two chapters there are over 60 of them. As you read them it can get a little overwhelming, even numbing. What do you think God is doing? In my view God is beginning to shape a society. When people look at it, that society will be as a light on a hill.

It may not seem like it, but when taken in total these laws show a remarkably civil society. Try and imagine the “wild west”, or some other time in the world, where the only governing authority is power. Whoever has the most guns, or whoever has the most strength…they are the ones who make the rules and the rules can change from day to day. Think about Egypt. Who had the power, and what rights did the Israelite slaves have? Enter Yahweh. Now, there are laws about slaves. There are laws about restitution. There are laws about social justice. The point is not that the Bible authorizes slavery; quite the opposite. The point is that in a world which has slavery, the poor, and widows, they, by God’s standards, are protected.

There is something more though; specifically we need to remember the context. In Exodus 19:5-8 God announced that He would make them his treasured possession and they proclaimed that “All the Lord has proclaimed we will do!”

Matthew 19 reminds me to make sure we talk a little about context as well. I will offer some comments on Jesus’ remarks regarding divorce, but first let’s get the context. The chapter starts with Jesus saying, “Now when Jesus had finished saying these things…” What things? His parables, and his parables not only challenge us, they challenge the religious of the day, including the Pharisees. The text says he went to a region beyond the Jordan. That is the region of John the Baptist. John, among other things challenged Herod for divorcing his wife, and it cost him his life. Do you think it is a coincidence that the Pharisees ask Jesus about divorce? I don’t. It is akin to asking someone what they think about energy in town that has a coal mine or a nuclear power plant.

Jesus’ answer is spot on. His answer is that God’s design is that people do not get divorced. Now before you get upset let me ask you a question. How many people on their wedding day plan to get divorced? I think the answer is almost zero (save for a few really manipulative people). The point is that brides and grooms have a design for spending their lives together forever; and that is exactly God’s design.

The Pharisees rejoinder asks Jesus about certificates of divorce. Jesus says Moses gave them out because husbands hardened their hearts to the wives. Jesus is just stating the truth. Isn’t that why people get divorced? Then comes a tough pronouncement: it can be hard to read - adultery. Trust me, I know because I am divorced. The judgment of adultery seems harsh. Jesus has pronounced this judgment before. Think back to Matthew 7 where Jesus says when a person looks at another with lust they are committing adultery. Do you remember that? The point is not that divorce is unforgivable. The point is that it is serious. We know that already don’t we. The point is also that at the root of this situation is our hard hearts. This reading when set alongside the Old Testament reading shows that when we don’t follow God’s law, life gets complicated, even painful – and we know that divorce can be painful.

How we read the Law will make all the difference. If we read it as a list of rules that restrict our individual freedom, then we will have a high probability of reacting, indeed rebelling against it. Quite simply we do not like to be told “no”. If however we read it as God’s good design, then we will try and live into. Will rebellion be a problem – yes. Will we fall short of perfection – very much so. And we will need to deal with that reality. Today however let us understand that step one is to get our hearts rightly oriented to the fact that God gives us the law…for good.

DAY 28

GOD WAITING

Exodus 19 & 20 and Matthew 18:21-35

Think about an idea: God waits on us.

Exodus 19-20 is a powerful moment. It is the moment that God has been looking forward to throughout the back-and-forth with Pharaoh. “Let my people go that they might come and be with me and worship me” was the mantra we heard uttered over and over. God has been waiting a long time for this day. It took about three months to get there if you count from the Exodus. I am not sure if we should count from that point, or further back: to Jacob, or Isaac, of Abraham, or Noah…or Adam.

The people will spend a year at this mountain. Here they will receive three things: a renewed Covenant, a Moral Law, and Atoning Sacrifices.

We get two of the three today: the Renewed Covenant in 19:5-7 where He calls these grumblers his chosen people, and that they will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation! We also receive the Ten Commandments in chapter 20. In the coming chapters and books of the Bible all of this will be unpacked more, for now though just pause and realize the specialness of this event.

A word, maybe even a game, about the Ten Commandments and what they mean. All those “thou shall not’s”. People don’t often like to be told what not to do. Author Josh McDowell in his book Right from Wrong describes that each commandment is a “precept” (which is another word for law). That before each precept (which is written as a negative – thou shall not) there is a positive principle. And that upstream of each principle is a personal trait of God.

Let’s try it: Thou shall not lie. What is the positive principle? Truth, truth is good. God is truth we read in the Bible. Another, Thou shall not kill. The positive principle is life. God is life. Are you getting the idea? Try it with the others.

The point is each Commandment, if lived into, means we are living into the image of God, in whose image we are made! God invites and instructs us to live into the fullest image of humanness through the Ten Commandments. God invites us into Covenant: you will be my people and I will be your God, the God who made you. He then gives us a simple list of how to live into that image. He also gives us a way to deal with the all too frequent situation of when we don’t – atonement (that will come a bit later although we read today about how to build an altar).

Matthew 18:21-35: ten thousand talents = millions of dollars, more than he could ever repay. One hundred denarii = approximately 100 days’ wages (Roman soldier received one denarii a day). Without those facts you probably already got the point. One had been forgiven much and one was asked to forgive a little. If we follow the “Josh McDowell” method we could say “one who had received much was asked to share a little.”

So here we are today reading about all the Israelites have received, can we make the shift to all we have received? We will read about how Jesus is our New Covenant, Jesus has fulfilled the Law, and Jesus has made Atonement for the entire world. We will read about how the Israelites fail to live into this call in the coming days, weeks, and months. We know their story well because it is ours. Today however let’s turn to the positive – we have been given much. And God has been waiting to give it to us. God has waited and waited in the same way God waited for this mountaintop moment with Moses. He has waited for us to give us all that He has – Himself.

DAY 27

DOING LIFE

Exodus 16 & 17 and Matthew 18:1-20

Living life; getting up, getting food, getting work, getting rest, getting help; it can all be a bit much. Today we read of the Israelites complaining, grumbling quarreling. I myself am a master at this trait. We read of Jesus listing off a series of “to-do’s” with regard to life. There is a common thread. You won’t be surprised (after all this is a Bible Blog). The thread is God.

Exodus 16-17 the people display this character trait of complaining. One time I was sick, very sick. As the days went by I began to complain; apparently I had not been for some days. My wife commented I must be feeling better as I was getting back to normal. Ouch! We all do it, complain that is. There is however a common theme in the Exodus reading: failure to turn to God.

Consider all that God has done at this point for the people and for Moses. Shall I list them? The Ten Plagues that freed them from Egypt in which they were given gifts of gold and more by the Egyptians. Then there is the crossing through the Red Sea. Then there is the Pillar of Cloud/Fire.

The point is simple. God has and is providing. Might they, when they needed food and water, turned to God rather than against God? They (and we) try to do so much without asking God for help.

Moses is trying to do it all himself and so God uses Jethro to guide Moses. An interesting and encouraging detail is that Moses learns to ask God. In verse 16:4 God intervenes before Moses asks, but in verse 17:4 Moses goes to God for help. I think this is part of the process of God shaping His people. He wants his people to know they can ask for help.

A little “side bar” on Amalek – you might be wondering if God just decided to go and pick a fight with Amalek: he did not. Deuteronomy 25:17-18 (which we have not read yet) fills out the story: "Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God." The Amalekites, not daring to take on the main host of Israel, attacked the tail end of the line, where the slow and weak plodded along. Yet, as Moses notes in Deuteronomy, the Amalekites did not include God in their calculations. Moses commanded Joshua to select men to fight, and the Israelites met the Amalekites in battle. The result of this seesaw fight appears in Exodus 17:13-16.

AND we note that point that when they rely on God, symbolized by Moses outstretched arms, they win. Think about how God makes this point. The arm thing may seem silly, but the point is that even when the great Moses is weak, God prevails when they obey (hold up your arms).

Matthew 18:1-20 has a similar theme with the fundamental issue of do we trust God? Is our trust the kind that a child displays: simple and complete? Do we believe that God will come look for us, even if He has in his possession 99% of the people, do we believe He will come look and search for us, the lost 1%? Jesus says, “Of course!”

There are some differences. In the Old Testament God is talking to people who are just getting know Him. In the New Testament Jesus is talking to people who have been following Him and His Father for centuries. There is a little edge with Jesus’ teaching. If you are doing something wrong, then remove the source: cut it off or gouge it out!

God is hoping we actually learn to trust and follow him. We will see that as we continue in Exodus and beyond. Today, as I ponder these readings I do think the point is what Jesus says in Matthew 18:18-20. It is not that we have some “magic power”. Rather it is that when we are in God’s Will and when we gather together truly to seek His Face, He is present. If He is present, as in a Pillar of Cloud/Fire, then our task – while hard to learn and hold onto – is straightforward: Trust.

DAY 26

ROLLERCOASTER

Exodus 14 & 15 and Matthew 17

Can I tell you that I am a bit of a chicken when it comes to a rollercoaster? I have been on them, but I don’t choose to go for a ride. I can muster the strength, and yes there are moments of exhilaration, but it never seems to outweigh the downside for me.

Our readings today (and for the past few) seemed filled with the “big stories” of the Bible. Today we have the parting of the Red Sea and the Transfiguration. With each of them there seems to be both highs and lows; there seems to be fear.

Exodus 14-15 tells the story, that when I read, I see Charlton Heston. He played Moses in the Cecil B. DeMille movie The Ten Commandments. Heston plays a powerful roll by portraying Moses, and the movie is fairly true to our text. What strikes me though isn’t this high point of the parting of the Red Sea. Maybe after all the plagues I have gotten use to God prevailing. What strikes me is the Israelites complaining: They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?” (14:11 before they crossed but after the firstborn of Egypt were killed) and “And the people grumbled against Moses, saying…” grumbled for 3 days (15:24 after they crossed over but now have no water).

They have had these huge mountain top experiences, but quickly turn sour as their immediate needs press upon them. Can you sense the fear? Moses has just had a huge mountain top experience and now he is back scratching his head over these people. Can you sense the frustration?

Matthew 17 describes another mountain top experience: the Transfiguration. It is a wonderful moment. You may recall in the last chapter the Jesus said, “some of you will not taste death until you see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom” (Mth 16:28). This is that moment.

As they get to the bottom of the mountain they run into a situation where the other disciples have been trying to help a very troubled you boy. They can’t. When they ask Jesus he tells them it is a matter of faith (in Mark he adds prayer). That must have been a little discouraging and frustrating.

Both stories reveal something I think we already know: life, even life with God, has its ups and downs. I am so affected by my American living that I keep thinking the Bible, God, Jesus, etc. is about getting it right, and then when I get it right that all will be easy; there will be no “lows”. The stories so far (and the ones to come) reveal a different truth. The truth is life has “ups and downs”. It is a little like a rollercoaster. The only real question is who do you want to be riding it with? Without Him I think we have seen the result is disastrous; with Him (so long as we have a right understanding and faith in our heads/hearts) we can live without fear and frustration. 

DAY 25

DEFINING MOMENTS

Exodus 12 & 13 and Matthew 16

Today we read about:

v  The Passover, which includes the feast as well as the last plague & the Exodus with God leading by a pillar of a cloud by day and fire by night.

v  Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Messiah and Jesus’ words, “take up your cross”.

Exodus 12 & 13: The tenth plague: how do you view it? It is the night the Angel of Death “passes-over” the Israelite households as the last plague, the death of the first-born, takes place in Egypt. A brutal plague and we can hear the echoes of Moses inaugural exchange with Pharaoh in 4:22-23. I had indicated earlier how serious this business of Covenant is. We don’t like to see the hard side of God’s actions. I don’t think He enjoys them either. The point in all of this is His commitment and focus for us, His creation. It becomes the Passover Feast.

There is one further detail I would like to share, and then one other point. It says in Exodus to select a lamb on the 10^th day of the month (12:3) and kill it on the fourteenth day at twilight – a lamb without blemish. If you think about what we call Holy Week, then the day Jesus entered Jerusalem, the day we call Palm Sunday, that day…is Lamb Selection Day. As the people cheered Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem they were essentially selecting the Lamb, whose sacrifice makes the way for death to “pass-over” each of us.

The other point, and it goes back to the harsh reality of last plague, is that I believe God doesn’t want to ever have to do this again. He instructs the Israelites, And when your children say to you, 'What do you mean by this service?' you shall say, 'It is the sacrifice of the LORD's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.'" It is the freedom meal, it came at a high cost, and therefore they should never forget it.

Matthew 16 tells the story of Jesus taking his disciples to Caesarea Philippi, his northern most recorded trek. The location is a Pagan worship site, a huge amount of water flows out of the mouth of a cave, called the gates of Hell. It is a Pagan worship location because of the fresh water. You can go there today and still see the carved images in the walls (Google Caesarea Philippi images). The point is that Jesus, with the so-called gods of the world in his midst, asks “who do people say I am?” “You are the Christ…the Son of God” answers Peter.

This moment is like a precious stone with many facets. One facet is the proclamation of who this Jesus of Nazareth really is. Another is that at this northern point, as the disciples now understand who Jesus really is, Jesus then begins his laser focused journey to Jerusalem to be the New Passover Lamb.

It is a moment when the stories and teachings of Jesus will begin to show all more and more what this Kingdom is supposed to look like. This idea, Jesus’ idea of Kingdom will be theme we will return turn again, for now know that it is very different Kingdom then his disciples are imagining.

And there is the facet of “how”, how will all this be done? The answer by killing Jesus, and by his followers taking up an instrument of death, a cross, and following Him!

Defining moments…imagine the night of the first Passover meal. You get the instructions from Moses. You kill the lamb, prepare it as instructed, and you spread the blood. It is all very confusing. Now imagine you are one of the disciples at Caesarea Philippi. You knew Jesus was special, you had an idea he was the Messiah, and you had been in his inner circle. Then it happens. Peter blurts it out and Jesus does not disagree. Then, just when you thought things might be coming clear it gets turned upside down by this “cross” business.

In both the Old and New we are in the presence of defining moments. The Passover-Exodus event is THE defining moment for the Jewish People…it is the moment of deliverance and freedom. The announcement of Jesus is a defining moment as well. There will be more along the way, but in many respects Jesus’ mission is beginning in earnest. 

DAY 24

DISTINCTIONS?

Exodus 9, 10 & 11 and Matthew 15:21-39

God seems to be making distinctions. At this point in the Old Testament it is between the Egyptians versus the Israelites. In the New Testament today it is between the Israelites versus the Canaanites. Why, and how far will it go?

Exodus 9, 10 & 11 continues the plagues. There are distinctions between the plagues. Distinctions between how they end. Distinctions between whether the Pharaoh responds or not; even a little. The biggest distinction though is between a world that knows God and a world that does not.

The story we are immersed in goes as follows: God created the world and humankind. Humankind disobeyed God and God even tried to start over (think Noah). Yet even the second time humankind not only disobeyed, but we literally forgot about God (think about the Tower of Babel). Yet God did not give up on us his creation, and so he begins again. This time differently with Abram (Abraham)...it will culminate in Jesus, but we are not there yet.

The story of Abraham is a story about God creating a people, a Chosen People, a Covenant People. What are they Chosen for; why are they in Covenant? We often think because God wants to treat them better than the others – nothing could be further from the truth. They are Chosen, they are in Covenant, so that they may reveal God to the world – a world that has forgotten about him.

We are in the middle of a story that is about telling everyone in the world about God! We must keep this concept in front of us as we read both the Old and New Testament – the Bible reveals God to the world through the people whom God chose to speak through – His Covenant People - indeed it will become our story, but that is getting ahead of ourselves.

The fundamental distinctiveness in Pharaoh is his hard heart; a heart that says “I don’t need God.” Which brings us to our New Testament today:

Matthew 15:21-39 “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel…” Jesus seems to be highlighting distinctiveness, but a distinctiveness that is different what I just suggested. Jesus seems to be saying the Chosen People are more important than the rest of the world. It does seem that he is saying this exactly, but he is not. The books of the New Testament, the Acts of the Apostles and the Letters, will unpack and sort this out completely. For now we know that while it is true that Jesus is trying to get the Chosen People to get back to their right role of revealing God to the world, He does not withhold he love from non-Jewish people (the woman at the well as one example).

So why Jesus' comment? What Jesus does do is allow this Canaanite woman to show that she does not have a hard heart! That she is truly seeking God and those who seek God find him (cf. Proverbs 8:17 & Jeremiah 29:13). She, a non-Jew; she, a woman not a man; she, a person with no name; she displays the distinctiveness God is looking for...a heart that seeks Him.

The distinctiveness that God is looking for is that which is demonstrates a heart which seeks Him…plain and simple. Pharaoh, the most powerful person on the face of the earth, is on one end of the spectrum, not only not seeking him, but completely rejecting Him. The Canaanite woman with no name, not only a powerless person, but almost a “non-person” by the standards of Jesus day, seeks and persists to know God. May we have her distinctiveness! 

DAY 23

HARD AND DEFILED HEARTS

Exodus 7 & 8 and Matthew 15:1.20

We read today about hearts: Pharaoh’s that was hardened and from Jesus’ lips that the heart is the source from which evil can flow. Many, in fact most, who read this Exodus text wonder why God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Was Pharaoh a mere pawn, controlled by God? If so, then is this not fair? We need to be careful as we read the Scripture, not demanding that God pass all of our tests. Yet at the same time we need to read the Bible intelligently and ask questions. My perspective is that we need to be respectful (we should really be that way towards everyone.) If we are I imagine God can handle our questions. So here we go:

Exodus 7-8 starts with God telling Moses and Aaron, “You shall speak all that I command you”, but “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart.” And God does. We read of the first four plagues: blood, frogs, gnats, and flies.

As I indicated in yesterday’s post, sometimes we need to wrestle with some of the more difficult parts of the Scripture in order to prevent the all too familiar trend that we see today of people “picking and choosing” what they accept from the Bible.

What do we make of the phrase that we might summarize as “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart”? A close read of these and the subsequent chapters will show a few different phrases. In 7:3 it says "I (God) will harden Pharaoh's heart", but in verse 8:15 it says "He (Pharaoh) hardened his heart and would not listen. One author, John Stott, writes, "We do not have to choose, for God hardens those who harden themselves". Further, if we go to the original language, Hebrew, there is even more. In the Hebrew language there are several terms, three, which we might translate as “stubborn” or “harden”.

Further in the Egyptian language and culture of the day, the heart was the place where sin resided. Pharaoh is not without sin. Think back to Exodus 1 how the Egyptians feared the Israelites, and how they killed the Hebrew sons. Pharaoh’s sin against God and against God’s people seems to be extreme, complete you might say. 

Therefore God’s deliverance will be equally complete. Which is where the text takes us…it takes us to a complete refusal on the part of Pharaoh, and not just of Pharaoh, but of the Egyptians, the land of Egypt, and the gods of the land and the Egyptians. They completely reject God and his people.

Is this God making Pharaoh this way? The text says “yes.” Is Pharaoh a pawn with no control? I would say “no”. Pharaoh by his own free will has been persecuting the Israelites for years, generations even. Pharaoh is not some permanent robot. Yet in this situation we can see the text communicating that sovereignty of God. John Stott's comment makes sense to me in this context. We will see this idea of God’s sovereignty again and again in the Old Testament. Couldn’t God have “made Pharaoh” give in sooner? In Old Testament sovereignty language the answer is “yes.” The point is that God is in control and God will provide the victory. It will be a complete victory; over everything.

This Exodus, this path to freedom was not a little victory over a small part of the earth. It was the freedom march of God’s Covenant People, the people he described in Exodus 4:22 as his first born son.

Yesterday I commented that we need to appreciate that this Exodus, this deliverance of the people God made a Covenant with, is a serious business. Said simply, God is serious about keeping His Word, and He promised Abraham, even despite Abraham and his descendents that he would keep His part of the Covenant.

Matthew 15:1-20 “What goes in doesn’t defile, but what comes out…comes out from the heart…” Jesus is responding to criticism of his disciples not washing their hands. His point however is much deeper. The evil we do comes from our heart…you might say our hard hearts.

My prayer today is that God will not only soften the parts of my heart, the parts of me that contain sin, but also deliver me from them…for this business of being his people is a serious business.

DAY 22

A LITTLE BIRDY

Exodus 4, 5 & 6 and Matthew 14:22-36

Today I want to focus on a small, yet what might be a confusing part of the text in Exodus. The passage from Matthew I touched on yesterday. Today in Exodus 4-6 we have: Moses continuing to wrestle with God, seemingly at every turn saying, “But what if…”; God then in response to each turn gives Moses signs and wonders; Moses gets permission from Jethro (his father-in-law) to go back to Egypt; Aaron meets up with Moses; they go to Egypt and they begin to engage the Israelites. Moses all along the way is worrying about whether any of this will work because the people’s spirit was broken (cf. 6:9).

We will read more about how God inspires Moses, the people of Israel and hardens Pharaoh’s heart, and I will comment on those in the coming days, but today I want to focus on a short and confusing bit of the text: “At a lodging place on the way the LORD met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it and said, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!"  So he let him alone. It was then that she said, "A bridegroom of blood," because of the circumcision.” (from chapter 4:24-26).

I want to focus on this because we might be scratching our head. The more we skip over parts of the Scripture we do not understand, the more we can tend to dismiss other parts of God’s Word. So what do I think is going on here? My remarks come from a teaching of Dr. Douglas Stuart.

If we go “upstream one verse, to verse 23 we read that God foretells the killing of Egyptian first born son. This is serious business. The Exodus Story is not just one of many stories, but it is an extremely important moment. 

Moses is about to go and represent Almighty God, Moses is about to lead God's Covenant people (yes this goes back to Abraham see verse 4:5) to freedom, Moses is about to do this by taking on the mighty Egyptian Pharaoh, not by his own authority, but by God’s.

Does he have the moral authority to do so?

None of us by ourselves can claim such. Moses is like all of us, he is flawed and he fails. We have seen over and over again the flawed nature of the humans doing God’s work in the Bible. We should not judge them, rather we should see ourselves and understand God’s using of them means he can and will use us even if we are reluctant.

Here is Moses, who is supposed to be in a Covenant Relationship, he is suppose to be the human leader of those in Covenant with God, and his sons are not circumcised. Circumcision is the sign of the Covenant. It is interesting to note that he is living with the Midians. We might think that he was just following their culture by not circumcising his son. We know however that the Midianites practiced circumcision as well as the Hebrews.

We also know that Moses father-in-law was a Midianite priest (you might even say a Bishop) and therefore his wife would know how to perform a circumcision. In fact she says the “right words”, the words that a mother would say and not the words of a father.

A few more details: First the word “feet” is a euphemism for genitals in the language of the day. Second “Bridegroom of blood” is her saying, “I am married to Moses and therefore as his one flesh spouse I am doing on his behalf what he has not yet done.” One last detail, Moses wife’s name actually translates as “bird” or “birdy”.

Here is Moses on his way to demand Pharaoh obey God and he, Moses, has disobeyed God in this area. So here is Moses (in a culture that circumcises, and being from a people who circumcise) having not circumcised his son, the symbol of the Covenant. We all do this. We all compartmentalize. In some ways we obey God, and in other ways we do not.

God was willing to put Moses to death. For Moses not to circumcise his son and then demand Pharaoh to obey God would have been a horrendous error. Enter Birdy: this daughter of a priest, this godly wife, intercedes for Moses. Birdy, who is of one body with Moses, establishes that Moses and his sons are now in full covenant with God. Birdy saves the day! 

Which brings us all back this business of the Exodus and Plagues and being Covenant people; it is a serious business. We are now that people of the Covenant. God loves us yes, but let us not keep this relationship casually.

DAY 21

FEAR – ANGER & GOD

Exodus 1, 2 & 3 and Matthew 14:1-21

Ever been afraid? Ever been angry? Today we have examples of people who are trying to follow God, and some who are not. Both groups give in to their fears. It is interesting to note God's behavior in all this.

Exodus 1-3 introduces us to the story of Moses. We read of how the situation for Jacob’s family, the Israelites, really changed for the worse. In the middle of an edict of infanticide, Moses is rescued, raised in the royal court, but becomes a murderer, flees, and our reading ends with a reluctant Moses at the Burning Bush. 

A few things catch my attention. The first is the Pharaoh’s reaction. In verse 9 he gives voice to his fear. His fear leads him to order the midwives to kill the Hebrew sons, and when they do not, his anger leads him to order everyone to “cast into the Nile” all Hebrew sons.

With Moses, born of the priestly Levite caste, he too gets angry and he thinks he has killed an Egyptian in secret. We never really do anything in secret. God sees all (cf. Job 34: 21-22).

Yet with this inauspicious start, God chooses Moses. This is a theme we saw in Genesis and I really need to get this through my thick skull – God uses very imperfect people – imperfect and RELUCTANT. Did you note the number of times Moses tries to talk God out of this plan and this will continue into chapter 4!

Matthew 14:1-21 begins with a fearful Herod. We read of how he is afraid that John the Baptist has come back to life. We also read the story of how John was killed. It is a story that is full of fear (it says he feared the people in verse 5) and he no doubt feared going back on his promise to Herodias’ daughter.

The Scripture says when Jesus heard this he withdrew to a desolate place. You might ask, “Heard what?” The answer is he heard that Herod had “heard about him.” Is Jesus afraid? I think not. He is cautious. He is not foolish.

While he tried to withdraw great crowds followed him. What does he do? He does miracles. He feeds 5, 000+ people, he walks on water, and he heals the sick at Gennesaret.

While Jesus walked on water, so did Peter. What happens when Peter becomes afraid in verse 30? He sinks.

In both readings today we see humans making poor choices because of fear and anger. Pharaoh begins a campaign of infanticide while Moses becomes a murder. Herod is a murderer while Peter sinks. In the midst of both God is faithful. God encourages and prompts Moses to be His deliverer for the Israelites. For Peter there will be more fear and failure, but God will not give up on him.

We see that all humans make poor choices out of fear. We also see for those who are trying to serve God, that God is faithful. God speaks to Moses that famous title, I AM WHO I AM.” Indeed Peter, the only one who got out of the boat and tried, is the only one who knows what it is like to have the hand of God literally reach down and save him! Today we see that in the midst of our fears, and we have them, God is steadfast and faithful. God's behavior does not change. In fact His behavior is such that his plans will not be thwarted. Moses will be Israel's deliverer. Peter will build the Church - both men will fulfill God's plan, despite their anger, their fear and themselves.