Daily Devotional Writing from Pastor Scott

Exodus 24: Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it as the people listened. They said, “Everything God said, we’ll do. Yes, we’ll obey.”
Covenants
Things are coming together for this nation of ex-slaves. They’ve been delivered from the bondage of Egypt, are receiving constant guidance from the Lord who is also providing their needs. Now the rules for living have been laid out. Soon, God, Himself, will write out the basics on tablets of stone. To their credit, the people are ready. They pledge themselves to obedience. Now, you and I know that this isn’t going to work out. God’s faithfulness to them will be contrasted by their failure to keep the Covenant. Still, God isn’t setting them up to fail. In this Covenant we see all the potential for success. Their failure in breaking the Covenant is what stops the plan from being a success. Hundreds of years later God will initiate another plan. You know it: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son….” Once again, and in an even more complete way, everything is in place for success. And, once again God’s part is perfect. In fact, he has even gone so far as to provide us the grace to make the same commitment they made. Now, Heaven awaits your response to the New Covenant.

Exodus 22: Don’t be stingy as your wine vats fill up. Dedicate your firstborn sons to me.
Living as one of God’s people
If anyone thinks the Law given at Mount Sinai is all about the Ten Commandments or at least is filled with regulations concerning their religion they need to spend some time in the second half of the Book of Exodus. The regulations stated here are a mulligan stew of civil, personal, and religious rules and regulations. The Lord’s just as interested in telling them how to settle a property dispute as he is in telling them how to conduct a worship service. For instance, he tells them that as they prosper in the land he is giving them that they’re to live generous lives. Then, in the very next sentence he tells them that they’re to dedicate their firstborn sons to him. For these people, there’s to be no difference between their “religious” lives and their “secular” lives. Instead, they’re to live their whole lives under the authority of God. Refraining from eating the meat of some dead animal they find in the field and making sacrifices only to the Lord God are both filed under the heading of “be holy.” A lesson for me in all this is that my life as a whole is to be lived under the authority of the Lord. I’m to live a generous, honest, compassionate life. Not only am I to dedicate my children to the Lord, but, as my “wine vats fill up” I’m to be a generous person, sharing the blessing the Lord has given me. The two, secular and religious, are really just one, living as one of God’s people.

Exodus 20: I am God, your God.
The Ten Commandments
And so it begins. This God who spoke to Moses through the burning bush, this God who brought the plagues to Egypt in securing their freedom, this God who delivered them at the Red Sea now describes how they’re to live. He didn’t bring them up out of Egypt so they could do their own thing, living as they pleased. The Lord God brought them out of slavery to be his own people. Their relationship to their God is going to be very different than the Egyptian’s relationship with their gods. The very first thing their Redeemer does is state Ten Commandments to them. These Commandments are just as focused on how a man treats his neighbor as how a man relates to his God. In this new relationship with the Almighty they’ll treat the Lord with absolute reverence, but they’ll also treat one another with respect, honestly, and fairness. One doesn’t have to be Jewish or Christian to recognize the brilliance of the Ten Commandments. In just a few words the foundation is laid for a God-fearing and just society. To this day there’s no finer expression of how society can function at its best. This gift from God to his people is every bit as impressive as was his parting the Red Sea for them.