Exodus 33

One of the things I've noticed over the past few chapters is that Joshua has been present, if not a major player, ever since Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. I had not remembered him being mentioned this early on - I know he will play a larger part when they arrive at the Promised Land, and then again after they wander in the desert... but it is neat to see where he got his start. His work under Moses and being so close to the Lord with him probably was a big part of his personal faith and strength later in life.

Exodus 32

It hasn't even been forty days since the Israelites heard God's voice and promised to serve Him and obey His commands - and already they have turned to idolatry. I always shake my head when reading this chapter, as it seems so absurd that people would fall away so quickly... but today I am reminded that I can be speaking to God in prayer one minute and sinning the next. I suppose that makes me no better than those people were; after all, we are all fallen humans.

The lessons here I think are really that God's grace is infinite, and that we need someone interceding on our behalf before Him. For the Israelites that was Moses, for us today it is Jesus. Just because we have a God who is ever-forgiving, though, does not mean that we have carte-blanche to go on sinning intentionally. In the same way that the Levites obeyed Moses and killed over 3,000 of their brethren in the aftermath of this incident, so we too must cut out the parts of ourselves that continually bring us back to wickedness.

Exodus 31

Oops - looks like I accidentally read ahead yesterday when I posted! God specifying craftsmen to head up the Tabernacle project is here in chapter 31, so I apologize for any confusion from those who read my last post.

The other main topic of today's reading is the Sabbath, which has been mentioned before as well. I've often struggled with this myself: does this still apply today? I know many Christians who won't do much at all on Sundays, taking that to be the modern Sabbath, but I myself find it hard to avoid any kind of work for a whole day. Don't get me wrong - I'd love to be lazy, I just have so much going on that I cannot imagine go 24 hours without getting anything done.

There is a phrase here that pertains to this question, though: verse 16 says "The Israelites must keep the Sabbath by observing the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant" (NET). That only speaks to the Israelites, and while Christians are sort of the spiritual descendants of Abraham we are not (or at least many of us are not) directly related to them by blood. Does that mean that a modern Messianic Jew would need to observe the Sabbath, but the rest of us do not? I suspect I'll have to wait till I get to the New Testament to answer this in more depth.

Exodus 30

I think we are drawing near the end of God's instructions to Moses. The things I find interesting and cool about the chapter today are that God provides very specific ingredients for the incense and anointing oil - finally some instructions I would stand a decent chance of following, given their simplicity - and He calls out the names of two craftsmen that He endowed with the skill needed to make all of the things for the Tabernacle. How cool to have God Himself describe your abilities like that, and acknowledge that He gave them to you!

Exodus 29

As with the preceding chapters, I am not getting much out of this. The idea of a real blood sacrifice being in any way necessary for worship of God is pretty far removed from our modern culture, and the requirements of what to do with various bits of the animals is especially confusing to me. Why do some parts need to be burned on the altar, some eaten, and some burned outside the camp? What does it all represent? I had always assumed it was the sacrificing of a live creature, especially one that had a monetary value in society, that was important - but there seems to be a lot more to it than that.

Exodus 28

The things I noticed in this chapter were the repetition of the colors for use in priestly garments and the use of gemstones in connection or as representations of the twelve tribes of Israel. I wonder if there were specific meanings behind the colors and the particular stones for each of the tribes, but the text does very little to illuminate any reasons other than that this was God's will. If any readers out there have thoughts or know of resources on this topic, please leave a comment.

Exodus 27

I'm sorry I don't have much to say about the chapters I've been reading, but we are in a section that consists largely of instructions on the making of things that are no longer used (either by the Israelites of today, or by Christians). I suppose there are probably things that can be drawn from the text, but with all the talk of sizes, colors and materials I must be missing them. My mind sort of goes blank when reading this stuff, and I need to work on that.

Exodus 25

Not much to say about today's reading. I might have more thoughts if I had the knowledge of carpentry and design to understand how everything described would come together and look when built - but alas I don't. I will say, though, that the descriptions seem quite thorough and specific. I sometimes wonder why God would be so particular about such a place, but His tie to that physical place (and the temple, later on) must have been a lot stronger than to the various churches and places of worship we use today.

Exodus 25

Today's reading, and likely the next few chapters, is about the things God told to Moses while up on the mountain. In particular, we get the specifications for building the Ark of the Testimony (or Covenant) - the same one that is referred to the Indiana Jones movie.

I'm sure I will read a lot more about this item as I make my way through the Old Testament, so I may come back to this subject again, but the topic of the current whereabouts of the Ark has always interested me. Some think it is hidden away somewhere here on Earth, as the movies tend to depict, and some religious groups even claim to know the location. But I've also heard that many think God has taken it to heaven; it does appear there in the book of Revelation, so perhaps it is already waiting there. If any readers of this blog have ideas or personal theories I would be curious to hear them :)

Exodus 24

During this early part of the history of Israel, there are a lot of accounts of God revealing himself to His people - and this chapter has one of the most vivid descriptions of that yet. Seventy of their leaders, along with Moses, Aaron, and his sons, "saw the God of Israel" (verse 10, NET) and all of the people saw God's presence "like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in plain view" (verse 17). I think I mentioned this a few posts ago, but I cannot wait to get such a glimpse of the Lord; it is a great comfort and joy to know that is awaiting me someday.

Exodus 23

This chapter has some additional laws, along with guidance for observing the Sabbath and annual feasts. Toward the end there is also a description of how God will deliver the promised land to the Israelites, and it is a pretty amazing account. It is too bad that the Israelites didn't stick to the plan, or they would have had a fantastic existence: no miscarriage, full lifespans, no sickness, and enemies that would flee before them. Unfortunately they did not follow through with God's commands, as we will see in the coming chapters and books.

Exodus 22

More laws today, this time covering possessions and various moral issues. It is interesting how many of these things carry a death penalty, and how squeamish modern society has become about such punishment. I'd really like to hear what folks reading this think about that issue, as it is a heavily debated topic in many political and social circles.

Exodus 21

This isn't the most enjoyable chapter to read, as it is basically a list of laws God gave to the Israelites, but it certainly is an interesting section. Here are things I gleaned, in short form:

- Possible evidence against abortion in verses 22-25

- Apparently the life of a slave was not worth the same thing as that of a free-man; this is especially interesting as God could have simply forbade slavery entirely, but He did not, and He most definitely limits their rights here

- An action or result itself is not the only thing considered when a crime or accident happens: any fore-knowledge is also taken into account. This is seen in the difference between manslaughter and pre-meditated murder (verses 12-14) as well as in the punishment for attacking a slave (20-21) and injury caused by an animal (28-30)

Exodus 20

Ah, a classic - the 'ten commandments'. These are pretty well known to most folks, and are a part of the foundation of modern Western law. The bits that particularly stand out to me on this reading are as follows:

- 'Thou shalt not murder' (verse 13): I don't know precisely how it comes across in the original Hebrew, but to me it seems that this only forbids unlawful killing - 'murder', as we call it today. Some people use this to say that all taking of human life is wrong, but I am convinced that things like the death penalty and warfare are not being discussed here. If you feel otherwise, please leave a comment with details on why.

- Keeping the Sabbath (verses 8-11): This is something I have actually pretty much given up on in my own life, but I wonder if I should re-evaluate that. I had somehow figured that this was obsolete, but then we don't assume the other commandments in this passage have expired - so why this one?

In that same section we get the reasoning for the Sabbath's importance: "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day" (11a). I take that to be further proof for a literal, six day creation; otherwise why would it may sense to translate that to our 7-day week?

Exodus 19

Wow - that is about all that can be said about this chapter. Imagine seeing what the Israelites saw: God's glory, encompassing a whole mountain, and the Lord Himself speaking out of the clouds and thunder to Moses. What an amazing sight! But then think of what we will see someday in heaven; not just God's glory shrouded in cloud, but the fullness of it for us to see. Thank goodness that we will have new, perfect bodies or I'm sure we couldn't survive the experience!

Exodus 18

This passage was both very cool and somewhat confusing. I really like how Moses' father-in-law comes alongside him and offers advice, which Moses takes despite the fact that he himself is over 80 years old. Delegation of duties here is shown to be a good idea, and it illustrates the fact that as humans we should be careful yo put ourselves under too much stress.

The confusing part, though, is that it seems that Moses' wife and children were not with him in Egypt. Here his father-in-law brings them to him, but I thought for sure that they took the journey with Moses and Aaron to Egypt after the burning bush incident. I may have to go back and re-read that to see if I missed something.

Exodus 17

Today's section of Scripture was two-fold, but there is a specific thing I picked up on in the second half that I want to write about. Here we have a battle going on between the Israelites and a group that attacked them, and whenever Moses raised the staff of God the battle would go in their favor. If he lowered it, though, they would begin to lose. This showed that God was the one in charge, and He was fighting for them. In a similar way we need to depend on God to fight for us when we alone are not strong enough - and just like Moses, when we grow tired we need godly friends whom we can depend on to help us through and support us. Community is really an important theme in the Bible, and we need to work together as Christians to build each other up and reach out to those who don't know Jesus. We are each just a part of the body of Christ, and by ourselves cannot do much - but together, with Jesus as the head, we are invincible.

Exodus 16

Today we see how God providentially fed the hosts of Israel while they traveled in the desert - which will extend for forty years. It is a pretty amazing thing, the way manna is described, and the fact that God was doing this for them every day (except Sabbaths) for so long ought to have been a good demonstration to them of His power and authority... but they will still disobey from time to time, as we'll see in the rest of Exodus.

The stand-out things today to me were as follows:

- God rationed out the manna, so that each person ended up with just the amount they needed. I bet gluttony was a hard vice to find among the Israelites in that era, simply because they didn't have anything excess to eat!

- Some manna was set aside to be preserved for viewing by future generations. Was that perhaps the first time-capsule? I suppose it was never intended to be opened, though, especially once it was placed inside the Ark.

Exodus 15

I'm sure it losses something in translation to English, but the song from today's chapter is very cool nonetheless. At least for a short time it looks like the Israelites understood God's power and His love for them, though they will continue to doubt and sometimes fall away from His way.

I also noticed that Miriam is mentioned here as being Aaron's sister, rather than Moses' (or both). I wonder why that was - after all, weren't Moses and Aaron brothers? Maybe she was a sister-in-law or some such.

Exodus 14

Today's chapter is one of the better-known stories of the Old Testament, and one of God's more dramatic miracles. I wonder if the loss of a whole army is covered anywhere in Egyptian history, and moreover I wonder if Pharaoh himself was drowned with his troops or if he had stayed on the far side of the sea and just ordered his men in.

I'm also curious how many troops Pharaoh brought. The Israelites got very squeamish when they saw the Egyptians following them, and yet we know there were 600,000 men in the Exodus. Assuming even just a third of those were able-bodied and ready to fight it is still a large host - and yet they nearly wanted to turn back and enter slavery again! It is amazing how little faith we humans have in God, even when He shows all manner of signs and miracles in our lives.

Exodus 13

I think the coolest thing about the reading today is the section at the end - where it describes how God led the people of Israel. We often are told to follow God's will for our lives, but here th people literally had a pillar of cloud or fire to follow. I often wish God's plan for my life could be that clear-cut, and the sight of that must have been amazing.

Exodus 12

Wow, a long chapter today - and a sad one for the Egyptians. Having a son myself now I can say that it would be a terrible thing to lose him like this. In fact, if you take the "firstborn" rule to include adults who were the first children in their families then I, my wife, and my son would all have died.

This is a happy time for the Israelites, though, as they are not escaped from slavery! It was also the start of the Passover tradition, which extends to this day. 430 years to the day they were in Egypt, and the 70 people who were a part of Jacob's household have now grown to be 600,000 men along with their wives and children! Quite impressive.

Exodus 11

The final plague is approaching, and this chapter foretelling it is very short. Two things stand out to me, though:

- It seems that everyone but Pharaoh thinks highly of Moses and the Israelites at this point - perhaps because of fear from the things that have passed. God tells them to use this opportunity to ask for valuable goods from the Egyptians, but at the same time is about to kill all the firstborn in the land. That seems rather harsh :/

- Moses spoke to Pharaoh to warn/threaten him about this final plague, but in the last chapter Pharaoh had effectively said he would kill Moses if he saw him again. Pharaoh's words don't hold much power at this point, but Moses himself seemed to agree (not that he would die when he saw Pharaoh, but that he would not see him again). Maybe that was just posturing on Moses' behalf, or maybe there is something in the way it is translated that doesn't come through right, but it struck me as odd.

Exodus 10

I suspect we are nearing the end, as the plagues upon Egypt can't get much worse. This is very reminiscent of some of the plagues in the end times, talked about in Revelation. When I get there in a couple of years I will try to remember to refer back here and compare them.

The darkness that falls on Egypt in the later parts of this chapter is especially creepy, and really hard to imagine. Sometimes when I read things like this in the Bible I think it would make for a pretty amazing TV show - and that would be a pretty cool outreach tool, if done well.

Exodus 9

Today the plagues on Egypt go from bad to worse. The ones recounted in the last two chapters were quite annoying, I'm sure - but not overly destructive or deadly; the ones in this passage are quite the opposite.

The Israelite slaves must have really been a key component of the Egyptian economic structure for Pharaoh to have stood up to all of this in order to keep them. I would say that I wonder what it will take to get him to budge, but we will see soon enough.

On an interesting side note, the last plague (hail) seems strange to me. Obviously hail can be quite damaging by itself, if in a large quantity and good-size chunks, but the storms God used must have been something really special. In addition to the hail itself, there was rain and thunder - which are quite reasonable - and fire (Ex 9:24). The mere fact that fire rained down is remarkable enough, but the fact that it accompanied hail and rain seems quite miraculous. Of course God can do that, but I wonder if it might actually be a reference to something like lightning. If they didn't have a word for such phenomenon at the time (perhaps it was not common in their climate?) it would seem feasible to call that fire.

Exodus 8

Frogs, gnats, and flies - oh my! More plagues for the land of Egypt, because Pharaoh does not learn his lesson. What I find interesting here is that the magicians of Pharaoh's court manage to mimic the first plague (as they had with previous miracles that Moses and Aaron had done), but not the second. On the third, we don't even get told that they tried; perhaps they finally realized how out-classed they were :) After all, they did admit to Pharaoh that "this is the finger of God." (Ex 8:18b, NIV)

Exodus 7

Ah, today we start to see some real action in the struggle between Moses/Aaron and Pharaoh! How amazing must it have been to see a staff turned into a snake - and then to see it take on other snake/staffs and 'swallow them up'? Or how terrifying to see all the water in a river turned to blood? Such miracles are not seen anymore, though as we'll see in a couple of years their like and worse will happen again someday.

In spite of these things, Pharaoh's heart was hard against the request to let the Israelites go. We know from previous chapters that this was actually God's doing, so that He could demonstrate His power and sovereignty in freeing His people, but I wonder what the Egyptians thought of all of it? At what point did the average Egyptian wish that Pharaoh would just let them go - or in that day did the main populous even know of what was going on? Surely they all were affected by the changing of the river Nile into blood, but I wonder if they actually knew the whole story of how it happened and why.

Exodus 6

Today's chapter is a little odd, in that it splits right in the middle of a narrative and drops into a family tree for most of the rest of the passage. The story picks up again in the last couple verses, but it doesn't really go anywhere. I suspect the next chapter should be interesting, though, as the last thing we read today is Moses once again calling into question his ability to go before Pharaoh. It is a good thing that God is patient, as I imagine that all of Moses' whining was getting old.

Exodus 5

Moses and Aaron finally make their case for the Israelites leaving to Pharaoh, and of course he rejects it. What I find interesting is two things:

1) Moses asks only to let the Israelites take a 3-day journey to worship God, not to leave Egypt forever. That is of course the eventual goal, but God had instructed them to ask for this first. It seems to me like it nearly borders on lying - but we'll have to see how it turns out when Pharaoh eventually grants this request.

2) As a punishment of sorts, Pharaoh demands that the Israelites must continue to meet their work quotas - but now must do so without the aid of straw to make bricks. This tells me that either the making of bricks itself or the building of things with them was a primary task of the Israelites in captivity, and we get some confirmation of that in earlier chapters when it was mentioned that they built two cities in Egypt. I am curious about this method of brick production as well: making them with straw hardly seems to me like it would a strong, effective 'brick', but such manufacturing is not a strong point of my knowledge.

Exodus 4

Today we see the conclusion of the burning bush story, and God's gift to Moses of three signs by which the Israelites will know that he was indeed sent by the I Am. I've got to admit, those were pretty cool too - especially the snake one. We also are told that Aaron, Moses' brother, would go with him to speak on his behalf. Apparently Moses wasn't confident in his public speaking ability, and there wasn't time to send him to Speech 101 ;) It looks like he may have even had a speech impediment, but I couldn't tell for sure if that was the case.

The later half of the chapter covers a very odd story about something that happened while Moses and company were traveling to Egypt. "Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the LORD met him [Moses] and sought to put him to death." (Ex 4:24, NASB) How is that for a conundrum - God sent Moses on an important journey, and then on the way nearly kills him. Apparently Moses had not followed the covenant of Abraham by having his son circumcised, which I imagine he knew full well needed to be done. I guess it just seems like odd timing to me: why wait till he was already en route? Why not deal with it before, at the burning bush? Oh well, another one of those questions to ask someday...

Exodus 3

Todays reading was the first half of the burning bush story. God speaks to Moses out of a fire that is burning in the midst of a bush, but which does not consume it. That gets Moses' attention, and Gid then sends him on a mission to free the Israelites in Egypt. Most folks know the story, and it has been featured in many movie and TV accounts of the story of Moses, but still I wonder a few things:

What does God sound like? The voice here was clearly an audible thing, not just God speaking to Moses in his heart, and so I wonder what He sounds like.

Would the fire have burned Moses if he put his hand into it? I mean, was it just the appearance of a fire that God was using to get Moses' attention, or was it a real fire and God was miraculously keeping the bush from being burned up?

What would have happened if Moses just kept walking. The text says that Moses saw the bush and turned aside to investigate, and at that point God used the opportunity to speak to him. Had Moses been like 'eh, whatever' and kept on going, what other miraculous sign might God have used to get his attention?