Burunche’s Blog

Exodus 24:12 – 18 “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and stay here, so that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.” So Moses set out with Joshua his attendant and went up on the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. Aaron and Hur are here with you. Whoever has a dispute can go to them.” When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered it, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop in the eyes of the Israelites. Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.”

These days, “Oh my God!” or it’s equivalent “OMG!” is one of the most commonly used phrases to express wonder, surprise, etc. Sadly, many of the people using this phrase really don’t know what they are doing or the God whose Name they are invoking. But Moses has no such problems. God has already met with Moses and the seventy elders; now God is inviting Moses to meet with Him alone and to stay on the mountain. Since Moses has no idea how long he will be meeting with God, Moses delegates Aaron and Hur to be the final arbiters in all major decisions. Moses also orders the elders to have the people wait for him until he returns – perhaps he fears that the elders might consider returning to Egypt in his absence?

Let’s look for a minute at the seventy elders. Obviously, these men were the chief judges of Israel, ranking just a little below Aaron and Moses. These same elders had just enjoyed the experience of a lifetime, meeting with God and taking a meal in His presence, consuming divine food and drink. Did the elders become offended when God failed to invite them further up the mountain, or were they relieved? All that fire and smoke might have been truly frightning!

What happened to the elders once they came down off the mountain? Did these men try to describe what they had seen and heard? Did they talk about the heavenly meal they had consumed? Did they tell what it was like to really be in God’s presence? When the seventy elders tried to describe their experiences, did people really listen or did they mock them?

Let’s think about the leaders who were NOT invited to meet with God. How many of the men who ranked just below these seventy elders were resentful, feeling that they should have been picked instead? Did the leaders in the level just below the elders begin cherishing resentment and rebellion in their hearts? In a few weeks, these same people are going to rebel against God; is the rebellion actually starting in their hearts already?

Now Moses is on the mountain with God. Joshua accompanies Moses part – way, and there is nothing to indicate that Joshua comes back down off the mountain. What does Joshua see? Surely Joshua must have an experience of the power of God. Much later, when Joshua is one of the spies sent to spy out Canaan, Joshua comes back enthused, even though he sees giants in the land. Joshua has witnessed God’s power first – hand and he has no doubts that God can easily deal with any enemy!

Meanwhile, Moses is up on the mountain for seven days before God calls him to come up higher. C. H. Spurgeon, a famous nineteenth century English preacher, has described our faith journey as one in which we are forever ascending new heights and finding new and broader visions of God. God has already met Moses several times; now God is giving Moses new visions of His righteousness and His holiness and His power. We might wonder how Moses survives nearly six weeks without food. God has created the human body and God knows how to sustain it.

APPLICATION: There are times in our lives when we can feel God calling us to be more than we think we can be. The question at those times is this: whose report will we believe? Will we believe our fears, or will we believe God? It is God’s perfect will for us to become as close to Him as possible, and there is always more that we can learn about God.

God called Moses to come up higher because God knew that Moses would come and that Moses was capable of meeting with Him. God did not call the seventy elders to come further up on the mountain because they had already experienced all that they could handle. God had been meeting Moses ever since He revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush in the wilderness.

Do you want a deeper experience of God? Meet with God in prayer frequently and regularly. The more you meet with God, the more your capacity to experience Him will grow. But the opposite is also true. If you are feeding your sould with violent videos and video games, if you are absorbed by on – line pornography, if you are obsessed with drugs or alcohol or gambling, you will naturally seek out these things rather than God. Many people don’t really want a deep experience of God; they want just enough of God to make them look like saints but not enough for their consciences to truly be troubled. God deliver us from being luke – warm saints!

PRAYER: Father God, set our hearts on fire to know you and to love you! Our faith is very small and our desire for you is at a low level. Please become the guiding passion of our lives. In the mighty and precious Name of Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 24:The Covenant Sealed

1Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD—you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders—and you are to worship at a distance. Moses alone shall approach the LORD, but the others must not come near. And the people may not go up with him.” When Moses came and told the people all the words and ordinances of the LORD, they all responded with one voice: “All the words that the LORD has spoken, we will do.” And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD.

Early the next morning he got up and built an altar at the base of the mountain, along with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent out some young men of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the LORD. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people, who replied, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”

So Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was a work like a pavement made of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. But God did not lay His hand on the nobles of Israel; they saw Him, and they ate and drank.”

God issues an incredible invitation: Moses and Aaron and his two sons and seventy of Israel’s elders are all to come up on Mount Sinai. In preparation for this, Moses goes over the instructions that God has already given him. The Israelites respond with a phrase that actually means ‘we will do and we will understand.” It’s one thing to do things out of fear of punishment by the law, but it is an entirely different thing to act and really understand why you are called to a particular action.

We only understand something after we have experienced it. We live and work in northeastern Ghana, where the temperature in the hot season can reach more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit at noon. But in the winter in the parts of America we originally come from, lakes freeze and ice and snow are a given. How can we explain to our friends who have only known extreme heat what it feels like to work in sub – zero weather? Only someone else who has gone through that experience can truly understand it.

Moses goes over the commandments that God has already given the Israelites and then makes blood sacrifices on behalf of each tribe of Israel. At the time of Moses, serious covenants demand blood as an evidence of the commitment of both parties. Blood symbolizes life. Moses sprinkles some of the sacrifical blood on the people to indicate that they are an integral part of this covenant, and that they are pledging their lives to keep these commandments.

Moses, Aaron, his sons, and the elders ascend the mountain and have a vision of God. Were God to have shown Himself in all His glory, these men would have been vaporized instantly. So God gives these men a vision that shows enough of Himself to be worshiped, but not enough to kill them. Aaron, his sons, and the elders rejoin the people while Moses goes on up the mountain.

APPLICATION: This story is bittersweet. Carried away by the Holy Spirit, Aaron and the others would probably do anything for God right after they return to the people. Unfortunately, as Moses delays on the mountain, the people become restless and pressure Aaron. Aaron is a smooth talker but his moral fiber is weak. Soon Aaron is collecting jewelry to mold an idol, an act that leads to an orgy. And in Leviticus 10 we learn that Nadab and Abihu get drunk and offer “strange fire” in their censors to the Lord, a violation of God’s holiness that causes God to strike them dead.

Mountaintop experiences are wonderful, but they are not meant to last. We must follow God once we come down off the mountain, and that’s a lot tougher. God wants us to become people of faith and faith does not demand visions and dramatic experiences to function.

PRAYER: SPIRIT OF GOD, DESCEND UPON MY HEART – George Croly

Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;
Wean it from earth; through all its pulses move.
Stoop to my weakness, mighty as Thou art,
And make me love Thee as I ought to love.

Hast Thou not bid me love Thee, God and King?
All, all Thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind.
I see Thy cross; there teach my heart to cling:
Oh, let me seek Thee, and, oh, let me find!

Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;
Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;
Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

Teach me to love Thee as Thine angels love,
One holy passion filling all my frame;
The kindling of the heav’n-descended Dove,
My heart an altar, and Thy love the flame.

Exodus 23: 27 – 33 “I will send My terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn and run. I will send the hornet before you to drive the Hivites and Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. I will not drive them out before you in a single year; otherwise the land would become desolate and wild animals would multiply against you. Little by little I will drive them out ahead of you, until you become fruitful and possess the land. And I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the Euphrates. For I will deliver the inhabitants into your hand, and you will drive them out before you. You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. They must not remain in your land, lest they cause you to sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

The Bible records that 600,000 Israelite men left Egypt with Moses. That does not include women and children or any non – Israelites who were so impressed by the power of God that they felt safer leaving Egypt. But the Israelites are heading into territory controlled by a number of different tribes, each one of which has soldiers. These enemy armies have swords, spears, bows, and clubs. In addition, the potential enemies probably have soldiers skilled in the use of the sling. When David later kills Goliath with a stone shot from a slingshot, that is not a fluke. Later on, David himself was joined by thousands of soldiers of whom it could be said that they were skilled with slingshots with either hand! Slingshots were the equivalent of high – powered military grade rifles. The potential enemies of the Israelites are heavily armed while the Israelites have very few weapons.

But God is a God of infinite resourcefulness. Little do the Israelites realize that the story about the Red Sea crossing has already spread throughout the surrounding countries. At the time of Moses, Egypt was a world power, and Pharaoh’s army was highly respected. Any power that could wipe out such an army was to be feared! The longer the Israelites stayed in the desert, the wilder the stories became about the power of the God of the Israelites. When traders from these countries reached Egypt shortly after the plagues, they found a country whose agricultural sector was virtually ruined due to the storms of hail and lightning and the plague of locusts. Egyptians who were formerly quite wealthy were now impoverished because they had given the Israelites their gold, silver, and jewelry to get the Israelites to leave Egypt.

Imagine the stories the Egyptians told visiting traders: “There was nothing we could do! We invoked all of our gods, but they were powerless to help us! The God of the Israelites was far stronger than any of our gods. If those wretched people hadn’t left Egypt when they did, all of Egypt would have been completely destroyed! Don’t have anything to do with the Israelites! Their God is mightier than any gods we have seen in any other nation. If our Pharaoh had not been watching his army from a distance, he too would have been drowned! ”

Even before the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, God protected them from the Egyptians by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night. Once across the Red Sea, the pillars of clouds and fire led the Israelites through the wilderness. Now the Israelites are at Mount Sinai and the entire mountain is covered in fire and smoke for weeks. Periodically there are earthquakes. Any people in the vicinity will see the fire and smoke and feel the earthquakes. Although the Israelites are in a wilderness, there are still people inhabiting that place. Shepherds herd flocks. Traders cross at a distance. And you can be assured that these people will carry embellished stories about what they have seen all over that part of the world. Truly these stories will throw fear and confusion into surrounding nations. And as if that weren’t enough, God promises to send hornets to drive out enemy nations.

BUT, having promised to drive out the enemy nations, God continues to warn the Israelites against compromising with these nations or adopting their idols. God has no illusions about the Israelites; He knows that some of them still are keeping idols from Egypt and would happily adopt others, given the chance.

APPLICATION: Many times, we look at ourselves and all our failings and forget the God whom we serve truly is the Lord of the Universe. It’s as if we are little chihuahua dogs barking like crazy and not impressing anybody. But then our friend, the bull mastiff from next door, comes to join us. Anybody who refused to be impressed by our feeble barking will have a great deal of respect for our big fierce friend!

But God’s protection comes at a price. We must not compromise with those around us who are worshiping something less than the One True Living God. Our friends and neighbors need to know that there is a God of the universe who loves them and who cares about every aspect of their lives. We need to let people know that God is worthy of all praise and worship and that He is the only true and living God.

God, our heavenly Father, has loved us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins so that those who believe on Jesus will have eternal life. Truly, our God is all – powerful, all – knowing, and all – loving!

PRAYER: Father God, thank you for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, let the awe of you fall on the nations, and let your Name be praised and glorified throughout the whole world. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 23: 24 – 33 “You must not bow down to their gods or serve them or follow their practices. Instead, you are to demolish them and smash their sacred stones to pieces. So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take away sickness from among you. No woman in your land will miscarry or be barren; I will fulfill the number of your days.”

Dennis Prager comments: “The Torah is philosophically and theologically intolerant of idolatry. Rationally and morally, it could not be otherwise. The moment you assert there is only one God and therefore only one universal moral standard, you are asserting the pagan gods are false….Moreover, it is morally inconceivable that tolerance is always a moral virtue. Are we to be tolerant of child sacrifice? The moral answer is self – evident.”

But having said this, there are several things to note:

1. Followers of the One True God are not instructed or allowed to persecute or kill pagan believers because of their beliefs.

2. God is not commanding the Jews to destroy all pagan places of worship, but only those they will find within the Promised Land. But the Jews are definitely to demolish the pagan worship sites they encounter once they reach Canaan.

3. The Jews are absolutely forbidden from following any pagan worship practices. This command is not negotiable!

“So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take away sickness from among you. No woman in your land will miscarry or be barren; I will fulfill the number of your days.” Dealing with a group of ex – slaves who had just recently left Egypt with all its idols, God had to make strong promises to encourage the Israelites to follow Him alone. But do these promises work today?

Prager comments,” No one can rationally believe doing God’s will guarantees one will, for example never develop cancer or die in an earthquake. If that were the case, we would have to draw the irrational and cruel conclusion that anyone who dies prematurely was being punished by God – or the equally irrational conclusion that all those who live long and healthy lives have lived God – centered lives…

On the other hand, Rabbi Emmanuel Rackman, the late president of Bar Ilan University, Israel’s Orthodox university, maintained there is indeed a correlation between moral law and natural law. When people act decently, disease is minimized. For example, God wants people to treat the earth well, and when they don’t pollution of the environment leads to poor health conditions. God wants people to engage in monogamous sex, and non 0 monogamous sexual practices are the ones that cause sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, genital herpes, and AIDS.”

(Quotes from Dennis Prager The Rational Bible: Exodus)

APPLICATION: Today there are many people who choose to believe that truth is relative; interestingly enough, when their interests are involved, they still wish to invoke moral standards. But God’s Word has stood the test of time and still must be the Standard by which we judge ideas.

Today we might not bow down to specific pagan gods, but we might be tempted to cloak ourselves in politically correctness. There have always been popular philosophies that have enjoyed vogues for a time, but sooner or later, they have fallen apart.

Rabbi Rackman was quite correct! When we follow God’s leading to treat the earth well, we are healthier. Right now in parts of Africa there is a looming environmental crisis. Those engaged in mining have been using mercury, and now mercury – related birth defects are beginning to appear. At the same time, some using cyanide to extract gold have polluted water sources, leaving towns and villages without potable water. May God help us to discern how we can fulfill our role as stewards of this earth!

PRAYER; Father God, thank you for caring for us so much that you have shown us in your Word how we are to live. Help us to realize that we cannot compromise but we must worship you only. Help us to study your Word and to follow it. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 23:20 – 23 “Behold, I am sending an angel before you to protect you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to his voice; do not defy him, for he will not forgive rebellion, since My Name is in him. But if you will listen carefully to his voice and do everything I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes. For My angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will annihilate them.

There are many amazing and encouraging promises in the Old Testament, and this is definitely one of them! Think about it: the Israelites are wandering around in a wilderness without any idea where they are going. God is continuing to lead them using a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. But these people have just escaped slavery in Egypt; while they probably are very strong because of the hard work they have been doing, they are not trained and experienced warriors. At night, the normal noises of the wilderness probably frighten the Israelites, as they wonder if enemies are surrounding them to attack them.

Now God is promising to send a strong warrior angel to guide and protect the Israelites, but this protection comes with conditions:

1. The Israelites must pay attention to the angel and listen to his voice. Presumably, God is speaking through Moses, so the Israelites should pay close attention to every word that God gives Moses.

2. The Israelites are not to defy the angel, “for he will not forgive rebellion, since My Name is in him.” God has no illusions about the Israelites. This is the same bunch of people who have already whined about lack of water and have demanded meat, even though God was already feeding them miraculously with manna. Defiance comes naturally to the Israelites; that’s why God is giving them a stern warning now! The Israelites are to listen closely to God’s instructions, keeping in mind that rebellion in this matter is an unforgivable sin.

3. If the Israelites will obey the angel and follow all of God’s commands, God promises that He will be “an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.” WOW! This means that as long as the Israelites will obey God, God will fight for them. But the Israelites MUST be obedient. God is not about to fight on behalf of the Israelites if they refuse to obey Him.

4. God promises to lead the Israelites back into the land He previously promised to Abraham in Genesis 15. “For My angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will annihilate them.” The use of the term “annihilate” here raises questions that Dennis Prager addresses:

First, “Annihilate does not mean kill every one of these tribes.” Later, God promises to drive out the tribes gradually.

Second, God is speaking about a one – time situation in which He will fight on behalf of the Israelites. There is no notion in the Torah of God promising to always do so. God makes no pledge to always fight against the Jews’ enemies.

Third, here it is God doing the fighting – just as in Egypt, where the Torah made clear the angel, not the Israelites, killed the Egyptian firstborn.

Fourth, it has already been established God does not protect the Jews if they cease living by His laws. In ancient religions, the gods’ protection was nation-based, not morality – based.” The Canaanites weren’t worried about offending Baal. All they had to do was to make the right sacrifices, and surely Baal would help them. The same thing went for the Philistines and Dagon; they could behave as immorally as they wished, if they only went through the correct rituals. Here God is making it crystal clear that if the Jews disobey, He will NOT fight on their behalf.

APPLICATION: Reading these promises is painful because we know what happened later. Israel did NOT obey the Lord, and the relationship of God to His chosen people was anything but smooth. But let’s look at ourselves.

Do we expect God to help us and to protect us while we are going our own ways? Do we offer our prayers with the idea that God will just rubber stamp them and fulfill them, even though we might have gross sin in our lives?

How many of us abuse food or the internet or social media? How many of us refuse to take care of our bodies and then demand that God should heal us when we are suffering the results of our poor behavior? Obesity has become one of the major underlying causes for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and even for COVID.

How many of us play violent video games or watch violent movies and TV programs? How many of us continue to take God’s Name in vain as we text “OMG” repeatedly? May God help us and show us that we are little different from the ancient Israelites!

PRAYER: Father God, help us to examine ourselves and to confess those things in our lives that are preventing you from helping us and protecting us. Help us to desire your holiness more than anything else. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 23:18 – 19 “You must not offer the blood of My sacrifices with anything leavened, nor may the fat of My feast remain until morning. Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

Many experienced teachers know that to get through to students, you must tell them the same thing several different times in several different ways. First, you tell the students what you are going to communicate to them. Next, you give the students your message, and finally you summarize what you have already taught. God knows we are all slow learners and so He is repeating information He has already given.

The first commandment here refers to the sacrifices made at Passover. Leaven, or yeast, has come to symbolize sin. Observant Jews will go through their homes before Passover, removing anything that is remotely related to yeast. God wants His people to perform His sacrifices just as He has instructed.

”… nor may the fat of My feast remain until morning.” This instruction sounds a bit weird unless you realize that most of the pagan festivals involved all night orgies. God doesn’t want to give His people any excuses for copying their idolatrous neighbors.

“Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God.” God has repeated this command over and over because He knows that given a chance, people will bend and twist His commands into pretzels! In fact, later on, the Jews do exactly that.

Malachi 1:6-8 describes God’s feelings: “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me?” says the LORD of Hosts to you priests who despise My name. “But you ask, ‘How have we despised Your name?’ By presenting defiled food on My altar. But you ask, ‘How have we defiled You?’ By saying that the table of the LORD is contemptible.” “When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is it not wrong? And when you present the lame and sick ones, is it not wrong? Why not offer them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you or show you favor?” asks the LORD of Hosts.”

“You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.” At first, this command seems to be really odd. Why would anybody be worried about such a thing?

It is possible that the Canaanites might have prepared such a dish at festival ceremonies celebrating the fertility of the soil. But soil fertility was generally bound up with worship of fertility gods and goddesses, as well as ritual prostitution. Again, God is trying to protect His people from straying into fertility rites by the back door.

There is also a second and very compelling argument against such a practice. Prager tells us, “Clearly, the Torah is sending a message: It is wrong to boil an animal in the substance which which its mother gave it life….The purpose of the prohibition must therefore be to affect us – specifically to refine human character. We are never to forget animals are living creatures, and there is something mocking and even cruel about boiling a kid in the milk of its mother.”

A first – century Hellenistic Jewish philosopher named Philo explained, “It is grossly improper that the substance which fed the living animal should be used to season or flavor it after its death.”

Prager continues, “It is not surprising that the ancient rabbis also did not look upon this law as pertaining only to baby goats. They regarded it as a moral teacher to teach a major distinction, the distinction between life and death. In part because Egypt’s religion was death – oriented….the Torah is replete with laws banning the comingling of life and death.” For anyone familiar with Orthodox Jewish dietary laws, this verse is also the reason observant Jews refuse to consume dairy products and meat at the same meal and even have different sets of cookware.

APPLICATION: While we might not care to observe Jewish dietary laws, we should still strive to understand the important distinction that is being made. God spoke the universe into existence and is the Source of all life. Jesus told us in John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness.” God is a God of compassion who even cares about baby goats, as well as all other babies in the world.

Each of us make life choices every day. When we choose to follow God and to observe His Word, we are choosing life. But when we go to the “dark side,” we are choosing death, whether gradual or immediate. God’s will is for us to observe His commandments and for us to be compassionate. What will you choose?

PRAYER: Father God, help us to understand how great is your heart of compassion. Help us to choose life in all our doings, no matter how difficult it might be to push back against the darkness. Thank you for loving us so much that You sent Your Son Jesus to die for our sins so that we might have eternal life. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 23:13 – 17 “Pay close attention to everything I have said to you. You must not invoke the names of other gods; they must not be heard on your lips. Three times a year you are to celebrate a feast to Me. You are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread as I commanded you: At the appointed time in the month of Abib you are to eat unleavened bread for seven days, because that was the month you came out of Egypt. No one may appear before Me empty-handed. You are also to keep the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the produce from what you sow in the field. And keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field. Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord GOD.”

Anyone who has ever served in the military knows that as soon as a commanding officer appears, the next most ranking officer will call out “Attention!,” and everyone will stand tall and salute the commanding officer. Those present will hold the salute until given the command, “At ease!” Now God, the Supreme Commander of the Universe, is calling His people to attention. Why?

God has gotten the Israelites out of Egypt, but now God has to get Egypt out of the Israelites. In preparing to give instructions about the three central celebrations of the Jewish religious year, God wants to first make certain that His people are going to worship Him and no other deities. God knows that His people are going to be sorely tempted when they encounter the fertility cults of the Canaanites, and He doesn’t want sacred feasts to turn into orgies by the invocation of the names of other gods.

The three festivals described follow the agricultural year: the planting, the first harvest, and the second harvest. Passover not only celebrates the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt, but it also celebrates the time of planting. But how could the Jews be sure that Passover would always come in the spring? Dennis Prager explains:

“The Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar, and therefore a year has 354 days, not 365, as does the solar calendar. The Hebrew lunar calendar is therefore adjusted by adding a leap month seven years out of every nineteen (as opposed to a leap day every four years in the solar calendar). Otherwise, Passover would fall eleven days earlier each year.”

“No one may appear before Me empty-handed.” The men are to appear in a place of worship, bringing a ritual offering. Nobody is allowed to say, “Hey! I’m poor. Let the rich people bring their offerings.” God is not so interested in the magnificence of an offering as He is in the obedience of the worshipers.

“ You are also to keep the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the produce from what you sow in the field.” This feast is called Shavuot. Although Shavuot has fewer rituals associated with it, it is vitally important. First fruits are just that, the beginnings of a harvest. But there is always the possibility that those first fruits may turn out to be all that will be harvested that year. So although this feast seems less significant, in fact, it is actually a risk – takers’ festival. Those bringing their first fruits are taking the risk that God is going to give them more to replace the things they are bringing as an offering. This festival really is a test of obedience on the part of the worshipers.

“And keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field.” This festival is Succot, when the harvested crops are gathered in. The name “Succoth” means “booths” or “huts” and refers to the temporary structures the Israelites lived in while they were traveling through the desert. Later in Deuteronomy 16:15, God tells the Israelites that “The Lord God will bless you in all your produce and in all the works of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.” The Torah commands the Jews to “have nothing but joy” on this holiday.

“Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord GOD.” At first, this sounds discriminatory! What about the ladies? But these commands were given at a time when travel was difficult and dangerous; in addition, it was women who maintained the households and cared for the children Many women did accompany their husbands to celebrate the festivals. Luke 2:41 mentions that both Jesus’ parents had gone to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. This command also would ensure that men would take their responsibilities as spiritual leaders in their own households seriously.

APPLICATION: For those of us who are not Jewish, these feasts may not seem as significant; however, the Passover celebration is intimately bound up with Easter. The Last Supper was actually a celebration of the Passover Seder. The descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost took place at the celebration of Shavuot in Jerusalem. And many believers in rural areas have historically had harvest celebrations.

The three themes that bind these feasts together is the need for corporate worship and celebration, the need to offer our best to God, and the need to take time to be grateful to God and to celebrate His goodness. Just as we need Sabbaths for rest, we also need worship and celebration and gratitude to God. How can you make these values a reality in your life?

PRAYER: Father God, thank you for knowing our needs before we do! Help us to worship you, to celebrate you, to enjoy you, and to be grateful to you. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 23:10 – 12 “For six years you are to sow your land and gather its produce, but in the seventh year you must let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor among your people may eat from the field and the wild animals may consume what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and olive grove. For six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you must cease, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the son of your maidservant may be refreshed, as well as the foreign resident.”

Throughout the Jewish Torah, the first five books of the Christian Bible, God repeats the lessons He wants His people to learn. And one of the fundamental laws God is instituting is the law of the Sabbath rest. In the Ten Commandments, the Israelites have already been ordered to “remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy.” Throughout the history of Israel, God repeatedly reminds His people to keep the Sabbath or face His wrath. Why is God so insistent? What is God up to with these commandments?

Here the Sabbath concept is not only repeated but also extended, upgrading it enormously. And there is another principle at work here: consideration for the poor. Land owners would naturally want to gain as much profit from their fields, their groves, and their vineyards as possible. Now God is testing His people. Will the Israelites trust God enough that they will allow their land to rest for an entire year, allowing the poor and the wild animals to roam at will, gathering whatever they can find. God is making no promises about blessing people abundantly in the previous 6 years; people will have to trust God to provide for them.

The term “the son of your maidservant” is translated as “your bondman” or as “your slave” in other translations. Prager points out that there are two different words used here for “rest.” “The term used for the animals is the normal world for “rest.” But the word used for human beings (“your bondman and the stranger”) ceasing from work can be rendered as “en-souled.” It is enough for animals to rest their bodies on Shabbat, but not enough for people. The Fourth Commandment is to make Shabbat holy, not just to rest.” This commandment covers everybody in the household, including any guests or any foreigners who might be working for the family.

In some respects, this injunction is a dual one. Until this point, God’s instructions have been mostly ethical; however, the commandment regarding Sabbath rest is both an ethical command as well as a command regulating ritual laws that are to follow.

APPLICATION: The recent COVID pandemic has pointed out the bad effects of continual stress. While being forced to shelter in place might seem to be a kind of enforced Sabbath rest, in fact, many people have found themselves working more due to Zoom meetings and other forms of electronic media. Now that travel restrictions are easing a little, many people are trying to take deferred vacations to catch up on the rest they have missed.

God has created the human body to require regular periods of rest. No matter where you are in the world, there is a change of seasons. In the tropics, seasons may only cycle between rainy season and dry season; in more temperate climates, there are four distinct seasons. In any case, there are seasons of rest alternating with seasons of growth. Our bodies need sabbaths, and if we refuse to rest regularly, our bodies may enforce rest by falling sick.

Are you driving yourself too much? How can you observe Sabbaths in your life? Ask God to show you how you can be quiet and meet with Him.

PRAYER: Father God, we know we need Sabbaths, but how to observe them is a problem. Help us to rest as you have ordered us and help us to worship you. Thank you for loving us and wanting to meet with us regularly. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 23:4 – 9 “If you encounter your enemy’s stray ox or donkey, you must return it to him. If you see the donkey of one who hates you fallen under its load, do not leave it there; you must help him with it. You shall not deny justice to the poor in their lawsuits. Stay far away from a false accusation. Do not kill the innocent or the just, for I will not acquit the guilty. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the righteous. Do not oppress a foreign resident, since you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.”

The “enemy” referred to here is a personal one, not the enemy of one’s nation. At a time when animals were routinely abused, God commanded His people to show compassion to animals also.

Abraham Isaac Kook, among the greatest rabbinic figures of the twentieth century, was often unfairly attacked by the Neturei Karta, a small ultra – Orthodox anti- Zionist group. On one occasion, the daughter of a Neturei Karta leader, a man who made some of the most extremes attacks on Rabbi Kook, fell ill with a serious and rare disease. This man learned that a doctor in another country was perhaps the only person who could treat her. However, there was little chance the exceptionally busy physician would have time to see and treat the daughter; and, in any case, his fees were far beyond anything the father could pay.

But the father learned the doctor was a great admirer of Rabbi Kook; If the rabbi asked the doctor to treat the girl, he would likely do so. The Neturei Karta leader was in a quandary. How could he, who hated and publicly attacked Rabbi Kook, now ask Kook to intervene? In desperation, the man sought out Rabbi Aryeh Levine, a well -known friend of Rabbi Kook, and asked him to speak to the rabbi. Rabbi Levine did so, and Rabbi Kook responded, “Of course I am prepared to give the man a letter to the doctor. What does this have to do with the difference of opinion between the girl’s father and me?” Kook went on to write a highly favorable letter for the father and even arranged a deeply discounted passage on a shipping line so that the father and daughter to travel to see the doctor.

v. 6 “You shall not deny justice to the poor in their lawsuits.” God is a God of justice. Having already warned us against favoring the poor in lawsuits when we should not, God now warns against using the courts to victimize the poor. The purpose of courtroom justice is to find out which party is legally right and who is legally wrong.

v. 7 “Stay far away from a false accusation. Do not kill the innocent or the just, for I will not acquit the guilty.” Prager points out, ”The Torah, preoccupied with justice as the foundation of a decent society, knows only too well corrupt judges destroy societies. Prager then points out that “First, God would prefer we spare a wrongdoer than sentence an innocent person to death. Second, God explains why: because He will ultimately punish the evildoers whom we fail to punish.”

v. 8 “Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the righteous.” Bribery is common throughout the world, and its results are horrible. Giving someone money, goods, or favors to manipulate them undermines society. A society where justice is meaningless and anything can be bought for a price will shortly find itself falling apart. Prager observes, “Nothing explains the success or failure of countries more than does the presence or absence of corruption….To most people, corruption sounds bad, but most people do not recognize how devastating it actually is. The Torah does.”

v. 9 “Do not oppress a foreign resident, since you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.” Repeatedly, God reminds the Israelites of how they suffered in Egypt because they were foreigners. God wants to make sure that His people will recognize the humanity of others and that all humans are equal. The Israelites were to be kind to the foreigners who were settled in their midst and not to oppress them.

APPLICATION: Very few of us may have seen many donkeys recently, but all of us live in neighborhoods with neighbors who can get on our last nerve! And many of us can name fellow workers who seem to delight in undermining us or taking credit for our work. The question is this: will we respond as did Rabbi Kook? The end of the story with Rabbi Kook was that while his critic still held different beliefs, he respected Rabbi Kook.

A few years ago the American court system was generally noted for its high standards. Today, things appear to be changing. Bribery and intimidation are affecting all levels of government.

PRAYER: Father God, thank you that you are a God of justice. Lord, help us to follow hard after you and to refuse to offer or accept bribes. Help us to faithfully follow your teachings. We pray for the end of corruption throughout the world. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 23:1“You shall not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked by being a malicious witness. You shall not follow a crowd in wrongdoing. When you testify in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with a crowd. And do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit.”

 Gossiping has been a favorite pastime as long as people have existed. Even before there were telephones or radios or any form of electronic social media, there were men and women willing to spread all kinds of wild stories about their neighbors. These days with social media, things have only escalated. Sadly, many innocent people have had their reputations shredded and some have even been driven to suicide, all because someone has spread vicious rumors. What does God think about this?

Short answer: GOD HATES IT! Not only is God serious about people not taking His Name in vain, but He is also quite serious about people telling the truth at all times. Someone has pointed out that there is no such thing as a “nice” rumor, only vicious ones!

Why do people pass on rumors? Some people just want attention. Others might think they have been told the truth when they have not. And then there are those who really do want to damage someone else as much as possible.

 Here in northeastern Ghana, it is very common for problems to be solved by calling a council of elders. One of the good things about village life is that everybody knows the people who are to be trusted and the people who are likely to carry wild stories just to gain attention. In a village setting, many people live in compound houses with several other families. There are no secrets in a village, and that means that anybody trying to spread rumors is going to have a tough time. Bring a false accusation to the council of elders and you may find yourself extremely embarrassed as your neighbors tell everybody what has really happened.

“You shall not follow a crowd in wrongdoing.” Dennis Prager comments, “This law is a prohibition on people allowing themselves to be led astray by large groups or majority opinion. One of the saddest facts of the human condition is that most people follow the herd. Sometimes, of course, the herd is morally right. That obviously , is the ideal. But most good is achieved by individuals who have the courage to part from the majority when it is morally wrong.

In addition, people tend to act worse in groups than when alone. The herd, not to mention the mob, emboldens people to do bad things they would rarely do if they had no such support…. People go along with the majority when it is wrong for at least two reasons: First, people want to be well – liked, popular. And the desire to be liked can be very dangerous, since it may lead a person to prefer being liked to being morally right. Second, it takes courage to dissent from the immoral majority. They may hurt you – physically or financially, or hurt your reputation. It is a lot safer to side with an immoral majority.” (Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible: Exodus)

“And do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit.” Currently in the United States, there are a variety of actions that have been taken claiming to redress the wrongs suffered many decades ago. But as Prager points out, “The role of a judge is not to undo society’s ills, but to render justice in any particular case before the court. A judge is thus distorting his professional calling if he rules on behalf of a poor man who is in the wrong…The judge’s primary role is to render justice in the courtroom. That is how he will help repair society. When judges forsake that role, they actually harm society, not repair it, because a good society rests first and foremost on justice.”

APPLICATION: Recent events in America have only born out the truth of these statements. Before buying into any arguments, we must examine our motives. Are we espousing a cause simply because others are doing so or are we truly acting out of conviction? Some of the groups that appeared to have good motives have turned out differently on further inspection. We need to pray for guidance and not be swayed by strident voices. And at some point, we may find ourselves saying, as did Martin Luther when he was asked to recant, “Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me!

PRAYER: Father God, thank you for your word and for the standards you have set there. Help us to truly see what your will is and to follow that and nothing else. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.