Category: Exodus

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Exodus 31 before reading the devotional below.

Well today I’m feeling convicted that I have seriously underestimated God’s calling on the lives of craftsmen. We usually think about God pouring out his Spirit to anoint pastors, teachers, and spiritual leaders. But if God has very specific project requirements, then skilled craftsmen are suddenly a key part of God’s plan.

The second part of the chapter talks about the Sabbath. This explanation is an expansion on the mention of the Sabbath in the Ten Commandments that were delivered earlier. God’s law sets a death penalty on anyone who doesn’t keep the Sabbath, which is strange if you think about it. What is it about humans that we have to be threatened with punishment of death if we do not rest one day a week? Why are we not jumping at the chance? Imagine a boss who said, “You take your week of vacation time before the end of the year or you’re fired!” And yet Americans especially have a strong resistance to rest. It’s something for all of us to consider as we think about what God is trying to tell us about himself and about what we need.

Here’s your freedom for today: God wants you to take a break. One whole day a week. Nothing on your to-do list is really that important. And what is important can be fit into six days. If you have more to do than six days will allow, maybe God is letting you know that you are trying to steal his job. You can’t save the world. There is absolutely nothing that you must do every single day. Set aside one day for rest and for dwelling in God’s presence. If you develop a Sabbath discipline, you might just find that you aren’t stressed to the max at all times. And you know what? That’s freedom.

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Exodus 32 before reading the devotional below.

God has finished giving Moses his laws and instructions at the top of Mount Sinai. Moses climbs down the mountain, stone tablets in hand, ready to share God’s message with the people. (If you have ever seen The Prince of Egypt, this is the moment the movie ends. If you know what happens next you realize that is a very misleading ending…) Keep in mind Moses was up on the mountain for 40 days. In just a little over a month, God’s people have completely abandoned everything and are making a golden calf idol. Even worse, Aaron is leading the show.

Remember all those instructions God just gave for his priests to be set apart? Aaron could not be doing anything more opposite of what God wanted. Moses becomes angry and smashes the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments on the ground. Those were supposed to be the centerpiece of God’s new tabernacle. Instead of experiencing triumph and a new direction, God’s people are in chaos, dysfunction, and disorder. Moses climbs back up the mountain and prays for forgiveness on behalf of the people. God does not destroy his people but they do suffer a plague for their rebellion.

Here’s your freedom for today: you can always trust God’s timing. If the Israelites had just waited for Moses to come down, if they had just trusted in the faithfulness of God, they would not have worshiped a false god and brought trouble on themselves. How often do we wait for God a whopping 8 seconds before we take matters into our own hands? What blessings do we miss in our lives as a result? Moses was only gone 40 days. Honestly that is one of the shorter waiting periods in the Bible. Sometimes we wait years or decades for God to deliver what he has promised. Sometimes while we wait it is pretty quiet and we don’t hear a whole lot from God. Can you trust that even if you do not hear God’s voice right now he is bringing about something good for you? Can you wait long enough for him to deliver it?

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Exodus 33 before reading the devotional below.

God makes me feel better as a parent. Sometimes his kids make him so frustrated he can’t even travel with them or he just might kill them. (Said every parent after every road trip ever…) Rebellion damages relationships. God is only willing to walk with Moses at the moment, and even Moses needs a little reassurance from God given the strain of the relationship between God and his people. Notice the reaction of the people when they see God’s anger at their rebellion: they enter a time of mourning and repentance.

Moses asks to see God directly, something that would normally be fatal to any human. God agrees that he will pass by, but Moses cannot look directly at his face. God tells Moses to hide in the crevice of a rock, and as he passes by he will use his hand to cover Moses’ eyes. Moses can only look upon God after he has gone by. We don’t really find out what this was like — perhaps it was an experience too incredible for words.

Here’s your freedom for today: God honors both obedience and repentance. Sometimes we think that God sits up there shaking his head in disappointment at us. If we could just be “good enough” maybe he’d be happy. But that describes conditional love (“If you are good then I love you”), which is the opposite of God’s character. His love is unconditional. How do we understand that in light of his anger in this passage? Notice that God’s people turn to mourning and repentance. God honored Moses’ obedience, but he also honored the people’s repentant hearts. Their sin separated them from God (even more than it already had), but repentance turned their hearts around to get back on the right track. God does not shame or condemn you. His love does not end even when sin divides you from him. God always opens the door for you to come back to him.

 

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Exodus 34 before reading the devotional below.

When you break your stuff when you’re mad, it just means you have to go through some difficult steps to get new stuff. Moses has to climb back up Mount Sinai to chisel out some more stones to have God write his Ten Commandments on for a second time. (And by the way, he had to cut the stones at the bottom of the mountain and climb up with them without help. He’s probably going to stop throwing things after that…)

God gives Moses a hopeful message after sin had separated God’s people from him. He tells Moses that he doesn’t stay mad, and that he is eager to forgive. However, the consequences of rebellion are generational. Sin can’t be ignored or it will fester and take over the people. Imagine what might have happened to God’s people if he had not responded to their idol worship. Eventually they would be no different than any other people who have never known God and the life he offers. Moses returns to the bottom of the mountain after another 40 days has gone by and this time his face is glowing because he has spoken to God. The effects of God’s presence are so strong that Moses has to cover his face with a veil so as to not blind those around him.

Here’s your freedom for today: the presence of God changes you. We don’t get a description of Moses’ climb up the mountain carrying two heavy stones, but I imagine that he had a lot of things to think about on that uphill journey. Surely it changed parts of his heart and mind. He was carrying the weight of the sins of the people, which brings up images of Jesus carrying the cross up a hill. More obviously, Moses is physically changed as his face begins to glow after talking with God. We know that today all of us who follow Jesus have this privilege of direct communication. What does that mean about the way God’s presence changes us? In what way is he burning his Spirit into you in a way that is supernaturally brilliant?

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Exodus 35 before reading the devotional below.

In today’s chapter, it is finally time to build the Tabernacle the way that God instructed. The people have repented. They have returned to God’s ways and instead of using their resources to craft idols they are bringing all that they have to make the building of the Tabernacle possible. Because of the precious gems and materials they received from the Egyptians in Exodus 12, they had the resources. And they gave them to the cause.

I’ve never seen a church building project go down quite like this one. The Spirit of God is moving in the hearts of the people. He is telling them exactly what to give and he is filling men and women with skills to complete the necessary tasks. There is a stirring in the whole community to fulfill the mission given by God. We often think of the early church described in Acts as the model of the body of Christ, but this chapter gives us an earlier example of God’s people as he intended them to be.

Here’s your freedom for today: accomplishing God’s work requires community. You can’t do the Christian journey alone. It is physically and spiritually impossible. The kinds of things God asks us to do are bigger than any one of us. We need help. We need to work together. We need to see that we are each one small part of something much bigger. If you are disconnected from a local church, get plugged in. Be a part of something. Find a church on a mission and do your one part with excellence. Let the Spirit lead you, whether your role is to give or to serve or to build or to preach. Amazing things can happen when we all move in the Spirit together.