I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 33-35.

    I read an article about a Christian congregation in Minneapolis holding an interfaith service this week during the run up to the Super Bowl. Then I read today’s passage and God’s command that the Israelites not make a treaty with any of the people living in the land to which they were traveling. Further God warns against taking the daughters of those people as wives for their sons. However, it is important to note the wording of that prohibition, “you will accept their daughters, who sacrifice to other gods, as wives for your sons.” Carefully reading this indicates that the prohibition is against marrying those who worship other gods. If someone truly converts to Christianity, the beliefs of their parents are irrelevant. In addition, God warns against taking part in the sacrificial meals of pagans. All in all, a reading of God’s instructions concerning the Israelites making treaties with the people currently living in the Promised Land shows us the danger of “inter faith dialogue” and joining forces with organizations of other faiths to accomplish a mission. If we do so, we may allow them to draw us into advancing their priorities rather than God’s priorities.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 30-32.

    This passage describes the census tax which later became the Temple tax which Jesus had Peter pay for both of them by taking money from the mouth of a fish. I also find it interesting that when God gives Moses the recipe for the Tabernacle incense and the priestly anointing oil, He gives strict instructions that no one shall make incense or oil similar to those for any other usage or purpose. The importance of this comes from the subliminal impact which scents have on our thoughts and emotions. Things we smell can have a subtle effect on how we think and feel. God knew that if people experienced the scents of the anointing oil or the incense in other settings it would have one of two results. The first would be to cause people to feel worshipful towards whatever was the focus of activity in that other setting, which would be idolatry. The second would be to cause people to associate those scents with something other than worshiping God so that when they smelled them during worship they would be reminded of that other thing and be distracted from worshiping God.

    Initially, when Moses went up on to the mountain the people felt that it was a good thing to stop where they were and begin getting their lives organized (reading between the lines on this). However, after a while they began to feel like it was time to begin moving forward again but Moses had not yet returned. So, they went to Aaron for guidance. Aaron had no idea what they should do next, nor did he believe that he had the ability to keep the people unified. So, Aaron did what many leaders throughout history have done, he created a visual representation of God. I find it interesting that this visual representation was a calf. What is interesting is that later, when Jeroboam led the Northern Tribes to separate from the Southern Tribes, he built two golden calves at the place of worship he intended to replace Jerusalem. The other interesting thing is that it was a calf, not a bull. Many ancient peoples worshiped a bull god and/or a cow god, but when the Israelites made an idol it was a calf. I am unsure of the significance of this, but I am sure that it tells us something about their understanding of God.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 28-29.

    I really struggle with what lessons we can take from the descriptions of the clothing God instructed to be made for Aaron and his sons. Perhaps the biggest lesson is the complexity of the ordination process for priests and how Jesus’ death and resurrection accomplished the same purpose. What I found interesting is that the directions were very explicit for the outermost garments, and progressively less explicit as you move inward so that all that is said about the innermost undergarments is that they should cover from their hips to their thighs. In addition, this passage contains detailed instructions regarding the ordination ceremony, which would encompass multiple sacrifices performed over seven days of time.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 25-27.

    When I read the initial instructions God gave the people of Israel in the passage from a couple of days ago, I wondered how it would reconcile with the design given for the altar that was to go in the Tabernacle. At the time I thought I would wait until I got to the passage describing the altar for the Tabernacle. In the earlier command, God told them to make altars to Him out of earth, and if they used stones to only use uncut stones. Those instructions also contained a reiteration that they were not to make idols from silver or gold which might be worshiped in place of God. I took those instructions to mean that they should not build fancy, highly decorated altars. My recollection was that the altar design given along with the Tabernacle design was highly decorated. It turns out that my recollection was mistaken. The altar design given in today’s passage is a relatively simple, portable altar. The structural integrity of the altar is provided by wood. The wood is protected from the fire of the offerings by being encased in bronze. Overall, I realized that the design given for the Tabernacle was not as fancy and intricately decorated as my recollection of these instructions from previous readings.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 22-24.

    There are several verses in today’s passage which contain commands which are relevant in discussions going on in our society today. Twice in this passage God commands the Israelites not to oppress the foreigners living among them. These commands, and others similar to them, are often used by those who argue in favor of the U.S. not enforcing its immigration laws. I do not want to get into politics in my blog. However, I want to point out that there are people among those arguing for not enforcing immigration laws who use those laws to allow them to exploit people in this country illegally. This command tells us that we should be speaking out against those who are exploiting and oppressing those people who are in this country in violation of the law. I believe that it is not wrong for a country to establish laws concerning who is allowed to enter that country. However, I also believe that I should do my best to provide aid to those in need, even if they are in the country in violation of the country’s laws (what form that aid takes must be determined on a case by case basis).

    The other call to justice I want to focus on here is a call for honesty. There are a series of important elements to this. First, God commands us not to spread false rumors. I do not believe that not knowing that the rumors are false gets you off the hook for this one. If the rumors you know reflect negatively on the character of someone, check their truthfulness before sharing them. God has more commands pointing up the connection between honesty and justice. If you lie on the witness stand (and I believe this applies to any place where you are giving witness, not just the courtroom), at best, you are cooperating with evil people. Further God commands us not to follow the crowd in doing wrong and to not let the sentiment of the crowd sway us to make false statements about people. Stick to what you know to be right and true, even if everyone else is convinced (or acting as if they are convinced) of the opposite. This does not mean that you do not take a moment to make sure that you are not the one who is in the wrong. It does mean stay out of witch hunts and wait until you know the facts when the crowd is howling for blood. The final command in this passage on the theme of honesty and justice is to refuse all bribes, even ones for making the decision you had already decided to make. Once you have accepted the bribe, you will be less likely to notice evidence that shows your original conclusion to be incorrect. In addition, bribes, even those which are for the just decision, will bring into question whether justice is truly being served.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 19-21.

    When the people of Israel came to Mt Sinai, God came down onto the mountain and spoke with them. However, after God gave them what we call the Ten Commandments, which Jews typically refer to more accurately as the Ten Statements, the people asked that God speak to them through Moses rather than directly. This is a very human tendency. We saw this same tendency when Adam and Eve hid from God after eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. We see this tendency in the creation of a division between clergy and laity in the Christian Church. We constantly seek to create distance between ourselves and God so as to avoid recognizing our sinfulness.

    Today, I want to spend some time focusing on the last of the Commandments. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s…” This is an important commandment because one of the things I hear people say today is “It isn’t fair that he/she has so much.” Oh, they often go on to say, “…and this other person has so little.” But we all know their real concern is what the first person has, not what the second person lacks. We should seek to help those in need, especially when we have in excess of our needs. Our concern should be with those in need, not in how much others have.

    Finally, I want to take note of God’s instructions concerning building an altar. We tend not to pay much attention to that since we do not, as a general rule, build altars anymore. However, it is noteworthy that these instructions are the first ones God gives after the Ten Commandments. God instructs Moses that any altars they build are to be rather utilitarian. There is to be nothing fancy about them, they are not even supposed to be raised up. All of this is to be sure that we are not worshiping the altar in place of God. The lesson here is that our places of worship must be designed so as to not encourage us to put more importance into them than into God. We do not make a place holy by building a certain building there, or having certain objects there. It is not even the geography of the place which makes it holy. No, a place becomes holy when we enter into God’s presence there and we should strive to have nothing which might lead anyone to think otherwise.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 16-18.

    At the beginning of today’s passage the people of Israel demonstrated an all too human failing. Rather than ask God for food and then later water, they complained about the lack. Rather than trust that the God who had miraculously brought them out of Egypt could provide their needs, they complained and regretted leaving Egypt in the first place. We all have a tendency to do such things, to have a “What have you done for me lately?” attitude. The people of Israel stopped being grateful for what God had done for them and began to resent Him for the troubles they now faced. Let us strive not to fall into the same error.

    I would ordinarily skip over this because I have talked about it just about every year when I have read this passage. However, I think the advice which Moses’ father-in-law gave him is important enough to be emphasized. When Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, arrived to visit, he witnessed Moses spend the entire day, from sunup to sundown, settling the disputes among the people. Jethro told Moses that he could not keep on doing this. He told him that he needed to delegate some of his authority to other people. Every leader of a group of more than five people needs to follow this advice to delegate some of the tasks of running the group to others. Even if the group is less than five, delegating some of the tasks is a good idea.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 13-15.

    The beginning of this passage Moses instructs the children of Israel to celebrate the Passover every year. In addition, he directs them that the first born male, both human and animal must be dedicated to God. Each first born must be presented to the Lord in remembrance of what God did for Israel in rescuing them from the Egyptians. These two ceremonies remind us of the importance of religious ceremony. Religious ceremony, properly conducted, reminds us of what God has done for us in the past. It can also serve to renew our commitment to serving God. This is an important lesson for me, because I was raised, not intentionally, with a bias against ceremony. I will add that while ceremony is important sometimes the ceremony becomes the object of worship rather than turning our attention and focus to God.

    The Israelites left Egypt like an army ready for battle. Then God had Moses lead them on an indirect route, one which made it seem like they did not know where they were going.

On a side note: I suspect that part of the reason Pharaoh gathered his army and set out to re-enslave the Israelites was because he feared them setting up as a bandit nation right on his border (the other, probably primary, part was hubris, thinking the plagues were done and would not resume if he did so).

The Israelites were cocky and full of themselves. God engineered the pursuit by the Egyptian army in order to remind them that they needed to depend on Him. There was a second purpose to it as well. Their complete unreadiness and panic when confronted by Pharaoh’s army made the Israelites aware of their need to accept discipline and training. It was not sufficient to have numbers. They needed to learn how to work and fight together. They saw that the threat was not just to their fighting men, but to their families and loved ones as well. There is actually a third reason for this pursuit. The loss of the best of Pharaoh’s army meant that the Egyptians would not be a threat to the Israelites for a generation or more after this, giving them time to become not just a people but a nation.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 10-12.

    One of the questions that comes up from time to time about the Exodus is, “Why did God have to visit such destruction upon the Egyptian people?” If you pay attention to what Pharaoh says in today’s passage you can see some of the reasons. Pharaoh’s response to Moses before and after the plague of locusts show us that even after all of the things which had gone before, Pharaoh thought he could exercise power over the Israelites. Before the plague of locusts, Pharaoh’s officials begged him, almost demanded of him, that he let the Israelites go to worship God. Pharaoh gave into their demands, but he was only willing to let the men go, not the women or children. After the plague of locusts (and the following three days of darkness), Pharaoh was willing to let the people go, including the women and children, but demanded that they leave their livestock. However, after the death of the firstborn of all Egyptians and their livestock, Pharaoh, the Egyptian people, and the Israelite people, all realized that Pharaoh could not exercise power over the Israelites. The Israelites received the unmistakable lesson that their rescue from Egypt was purely at the hand of God. They had done nothing to obtain their own release.

    There is one other aspect of the period of time of the plagues: Moses went from a man unsure of himself to a confident leader of people. When God first called Moses he was a shepherd who spent most of his time by himself with the sheep (and goats?). His confidence in himself as a leader of people completely broken to the point where he begged God to choose someone, anyone, else. On the night before the first Passover, Moses was a confident leader who was willing and able to give people detailed instructions. He knew what people should do and believed in himself enough to give them instructions they could, and would, follow.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 7-9.

    At the end of yesterday’s passage when God told Moses to go back to Pharaoh again to ask him to let the Israelites go, Moses complained that he could not do it because he was a bad speaker. Moses believed that he would have to convince Pharaoh by his eloquence. God responded by telling Moses that He would perform miracles to convince Pharaoh, and that Pharaoh would still refuse until God would bring his fist down on Egypt, at which point Pharaoh would beg them to leave. It is important to remember that when God calls and sends us we will not accomplish the task He has given us by our eloquence. It is not our eloquence, or skill, or strength, or cunning, which will accomplish the tasks which God sets before us. Those tasks will be accomplished by the power of God and by nothing else. God gave Moses skills which he used when God sent him to lead His people, but those skills were not what got the job done.

    There are two other aspects of this passage I want to point out. The first is the sort of subtle clue that indicates that God is starting to move. When Aaron cast his staff down and it became a snake, Pharaoh’s advisers did the same thing neutralizing the impact of this miracle. But something happened which is the sort of thing for which the observant should watch: Aaron’s snake ate those produced by Pharaoh’s advisers. The other thing I want to note is that at the beginning the passage tells us that Pharaoh’s heart remained hard and/or he became stubborn. Through the first five plagues, Pharaoh had what is called agency. He could have decided to let the God’s people go, but he did not. However, with the sixth plague, God no longer allowed Pharaoh the choice. At that point the passage tells us that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. We all have the choice to do God’s will, but at some point God may choose to no longer give us that choice, at least until He has poured out His full wrath.