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.