Category: Exodus

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

The Sabbath principle worked too for the land – it had to lie fallow every seventh year. It is only in the last one hundred years that we have come to understand again that this is a good idea. The three great festivals are paralleled with the three great events of Jesus’ ministry:– His death and resurrection – Passover, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit – the Feast of Pentecost celebrating the beginning of the harvest, and the Marriage of the Lamb – the Feast of Tabernacles at the end of harvest.

SJA Notes

* Dear God, please teach us from Your word today.

“Little by little I will drive them out from before you,”

Our God is the almighty all-powerful God, the One who spun creation into being with His WORD.

But we know from His word that He often works in small ways, where meekness and humility are the hallmarks of His measure.

God knew that Israel could not cope with having the promised land conquered all at once. Instead He gave (Joshua who would lead) them a way forward.

Little by little.

God knows us too. He often works in our lives little by little.

A patient direction, a long-suffering helping hand, a quiet word here and a gentle leading there.

He works in the little bits of daily communion we have with Him. He writes His word on our hearts over years of faithful walking – Wisdom that only comes about through years and experiences that He works for our good!

* Gracious Father,

Thank You that You are at work in us, as You worked for Israel.

Thank You that You often choose to work little by little, grinding away our sharp edges over many days and years, effecting sanctification in us. Making us more like Jesus, step by step.

Please may we grow in our love for and knowledge of You Lord God – Please teach us Your ways!

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Compensation and restitution were the rules of ancient Israeli justice. If someone was caught stealing your DVD, he, or his extended family, had to pay you back double. Financial liability meant that extended families policed their own members. We don’t get this standard of justice today!

SJA Notes

* Mighty God, please refine us today, burning off the dross, purifying us before You.

“You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”

The general meaning of the word “sojourner” is someone who resides for a time, or temporarily, in a place.

Israel were in Egypt for around four hundred years.

In the span of time, this is temporary!

We can be so bound in time, the passage for us being so important, that anything past our lifetime can seem like a very long time.

But their time in Egypt was only for a period.

And so too is ours on this earth.

“You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”

We are all to know the heart of a sojourner.

A fundamental truth is that our life here is finite. We are mortal. God has allotted for us our days, and so our time on earth is temporary.

We want to live for the Lord in the now, but long to be with Him in the not yet – We look forward to glory!

When the Lord shall appear, and we shall see Him face to face.

What a day that will be!

“They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”

* Dear Lord God,

Please fix within us a desire to see Your face.

Please may we have a heart of a sojourner, not set on earthly things as our hope, but on the heavenly, the things of You.

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

A lot of the laws in the Books of Moses are case law where cases are tried by judges on legal precedent and on the explication of basic principles (here the 10 Commandments). Case law is different from statute law, where each situation is covered by a rule. Case law often tells a tale – as here with Hebrew servants.

SJA Notes

* Heavenly Father, please teach us from Your word today, even when we might struggle with what You say.

“But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”

God has given His ten commandments, statutes for us to live by.

And now He gives through Moses the outworking of those statutes in how to protect and govern.

Think about the people Israel. They have come out from Egypt with many bad habits, legal assumptions from a man-made system.

God begins to outline how they are to live with one another, the base-level of acceptable behaviour.

If you do harm, accept the consequences.

But more, the framework for living as one of God’s people is that doing harm is _wrong_ and will be punished!

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil.”

Jesus, thousands of years later, bores down into what we read from today’s passage. He brings a deeper understanding of how we are to live together.

That is, to turn the focus from the one who does the wrong thing to the person who is wronged.

God will punish evil. He is not slow to act, but merciful.

And while we see the law of Moses giving us the framework for those who are in the wrong, Jesus upgrades our thinking from them to the perspective of those who are wronged.

Which should bring to reminder what Jesus did for us His people – As one who did no wrong, and was put into a position of great wrong being done to Him.

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us …”

* Merciful Father,

Thank You for giving to us Your word, old and new testaments together.

Thank You that when Jesus came He helped us understand more of how we need to live.

Thank You that even though Jesus did no wrong, He took on our wrongdoing at the cross.

Amen.