Archive for month: February, 2022

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Exodus 33:1-11.  Let’s go!

Exodus 33:1-6 (NIV)
1  Then the LORD said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’
2  I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
3  Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”
4  When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no one put on any ornaments.
5  For the LORD had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.'”
6  So the Israelites stripped off their ornaments at Mount Horeb.

On verses 1-6: In His mercy the LORD allowed the Israelites to proceed to the promised land even after they had broken His law by committing idolatry. In His anger the LORD proposed that He not join them on the rest of their journey lest the Israelites in their stubbornness sin again and compel Him to strike them down in His anger. Instead, the LORD would send His angel to go before them.  Yet the prospect of going forward without the LORD’s personal presence was a depressing and sad one for Moses and the Israelites. Even if they were to reach the promised land, what good would it be if they didn’t have the personal presence of God?

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Exodus 32:15-24.  Let’s go!

Exodus 32:15-16 (NIV)
15  Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back.
16  The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

On verses 15-16:  Moses returns from the mountain carrying in his hands the most precious thing given to humanity up until that time: two tablets containing the writing of God.  What did God write on those tablets?  It was “the Testimony”, that is (most likely) the Ten Commandments.  Some scholars believe that these two tablets, which had writing on both the front and back, were identical to one another and were two copies of the same thing, one for God and one for the people, consistent with ancient Near East covenant making practices at that time. 

There was nothing more valuable on the earth at this time that these two tablets.  God wrote His law on tablets of stone.  Later He choose another method of delivering His Word to His people: instead of writing it on breakable tablets of stone, God would choose to write it on breakable human hearts (see 2 Corinthians 3:3).  For when a stone tablet breaks, whatever was written of it can’t be seen anymore.  But when a heart breaks, whatever was written on it will be seen more clearly than ever.

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Exodus 32:25-35.  Let’s go!

Exodus 32:25 (NIV)
25  Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies.

On verse 25:   The great news of the gospel is that although our sins separated us from God’s presence (see Exodus 32:33), although God could easily have edited us out of His book, instead in love God sent Jesus Christ to receive all the punishment for our sins. By dying on the cross, Jesus paid for all our sins (past, present and future) and restored us to God’s presence.  That indeed is the best news ever.  But remember this: when we sin, especially in public ways, we still affect two types of people.

First, when we sin in public, we become a stumbling block to other believers.  Verse 25 says that because of Aaron and the Israelites’ sin, God’s people were “running wild” and “out of control” (v25).  Whenever we sin in public ways, we confuse other Christians, discourage their faith, and tempt them to sin in the same ways.   So let’s be careful.  Like Paul said to Timothy, let’s “set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12).