Category: Devotionals

This One’s on Me

Ex. 25:1   The LORD said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me.”

Read Exodus 25:1-27:21

One of life’s wonderful surprises is to be on the receiving end of generosity. Receiving generosity stirs in us affections. If we go out to dinner with friends and they offer to pay, we may be surprised. The greater the generosity the more we are overwhelmed. So it is with the people of Israel. There is a wonderful song that my family used to sing over Passover called, Dayeinu.  This word in Hebrew means “It would have been enough.” After every verse the words Dayeinu are sung. Let Dayeinu sink in:

If He had brought us out of Egypt. Dayeinu!
If He had executed justice upon the Egyptians. Dayeinu!
If He had executed justice upon their gods. Dayeinu!
If He had slain their first-born. Dayeinu!
If He had given to us their health and wealth. Dayeinu!
 
If He had split the sea for us. Dayeinu!
If He had led us through on dry land. Dayeinu!
 If He had drowned our oppressors. Dayeinu!
If He had provided for our needs in the wilderness for 40 years. Dayeinu!
If He had fed us manna. Dayeinu!
 
If He had given us Sabbath Rest. Dayeinu!
If He had led us to Mount Sinai. Dayeinu!
If He had given us the Torah. Dayeinu!
If He had brought us into the Land of Israel. Dayeinu!
If He built the Temple for us. Dayeinu!

This passage comes after Moses and the elders meet God on the mountain. Whilst on the mountain, God gives them the instructions and designs for building the tabernacle. The building project and “financial campaign” that Moses and the elders of Israel embark on is not predicated on a sense of debt or duty. They count it as the joyous overflow of worship to their Redeemer.

The more we understand Grace, the less we will be gripped by gild. Money will become just that: money. It will lose its subtle, yet divine-like status in our lives. The people of Israel’s hearts are moved to respond the overtures of Grace (Exodus 25:2).

How much more will we who know the full Exodus story. The Story of the Lamb who took our place be moved to generosity? Jesus’ generosity on the cross was overwhelming. He did not tithe his blood, but gave it all. So we are moved to care for the needs of others as God provided for our deepest need, the need of Redemption. We are moved to generosity, giving and tithing.

Let God’s Grace flood you with generosity in all you do today.

Dinner Party!

Exodus 24:8 “Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.” 9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11 … they beheld God, and ate and drank.

Read Exodus 24:1-18

What is the oddest dinner party you have been to? Homeshot pheasant with an odd sauce made of Branston pickle and mayo? Strange dinner guests? Dinner parties can be a bore. Dinner parties can be extremely fun. It all depends on the company. It all depends on the food. What is the most enjoyable dinner party you have ever been to?

Here we find the best dinner party ever. It is dinner with God. Moses and the elders of Israel go up Mount Sinai and have go to a dinner party with God. The previous four chapters we have seen a mountain of fire and smoke. The people of Israel have been struck by the holiness of God – God’s otherness. Here we find a God who, though holy, is approachable.

Looking at nature we may find that there is a Creator, but natural revelation alone cannot tell us of an approachable God. Where do we get the idea of a God of love? Moses gives us the answer. It is the blood of the covenant. God pays the price grant us entrance into his banquet. He pays with his own life blood.

We can hear the invitation to dinner as Jesus says, “Take, eat; this is my body. Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matt. 26:26–29)

Every time you celebrate the Lord’s Supper.  Remember it God reaffirming his oath of loyalty to you in blood. Jesus pays the steepest price to invite us to his banquet. Asy you take communion reaffirm your covenant with Him.

This week as eat, remember. You are invited to the greatest banquet ever. A banquet of eternal fellowship.

Driving Distracted

Ex. 23:20   “Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.”

Read Exodus 23:20-33

The number of motorists who admit to taking calls and sending text messages while on the road has tripled in a year, rising from 8% to 28% and 11% to 31% respectively, according to the 2010 RAC Report on Motoring. Furthermore, over a third (39%) of UK motorists admit to being distracted by calls, texts and social media applications on their mobile phones while they are driving, according to new research figures released today by the RAC.

Driving while distracted is a dangerous thing. This passage we have just read is God’s promise to his people to go before them and prepare a place for them. Many commentators believe that Jesus quotes this passage in John 14:1-2 when he says, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”

Just as in our daily driving, being distracted is mortally dangerous. Not being aware of the heaven is perhaps the most dangerous thing we could do in our lives. Heaven is our destination, but our distraction can make us forever miss it.

Often times in our daily life we may think that the idea of heaven is a distracting idea from the toils, preoccupations and cares of the present. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact it is not focusing on heaven that makes us “distracted drivers” in this life. Being heavenly-minded focuses our minds, efforts and energies to the rigorous demands of life. We will miss the signposts along the road if we are unaware of the destination.

CS Lewis put it this way, “Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.” (Mere Christianity, Book III, Chapter 10).

We all are driving while distracted and do not even realise that we are.

Today put aside any distractions as you drive the road of life. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and forerunner of our faith.”(Heb 12:2) Our brother, our captain, our king has punched a whole through death and prepared the way for us. Let us drive focused.

Throw Your Doing Down

Ex. 23:12   “Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed.

Read Exodus 23:10-19

One of the biggest problems humans face is deep restlessness. Judith Shulevitz, famed New York Times columnist, described this deep restlessness and our need for deep peace this way:

“Most people mistakenly believe that all you have to do to stop working is not work. The inventors of the Sabbath understood that it was a much more complicated undertaking. You cannot downshift casually and easily, the way you might slip into bed at the end of a long day not only did drudgery give way to festivity, family gatherings and occasionally worship, but the machinery of self-censorship shut down, too, stilling the eternal inner murmur of self-reproach.”

When evening rolls around distracting situations vie for our attention. Often evenings can be such occasion.  The main theme of these laws, however, is not just looking at forced rest; rather it is concerned with inward peace in all situations. The approach of night, with its temptation to brood on past wrongs and present perils, only challenges us to make our faith explicit and to urge it on others, as a committal of our cause and ourselves to a faithful Creator.

The Holy Spirit, speaking through Moses, challenges us to see where we derive our sense vindication, righteousness or rest. Any other way of seeking vindication will only lead to disillusion, “on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed” (v.12) The writer of Hebrews challenges this very notion quoting this the creation story and the Sabbath Laws, Heb 4:10 “for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from His.”

But what is God’s rest? If Jesus is our righteousness then we don’t have to fight for our rights. If Jesus is our vindication we do not need to prove ourselves. It is this confidence in justification that leads to true, deep rest. It is Jesus who speaks to the restlessness of our life, “Peace, Be still.”

Sabbath Laws are not a primitive taboos, but deeply theological declarations. The glory of Israel’s faith is the belief that God preserves both man and beast (Ps. 36:6) and feeds the wild animals every day (Ps. 104:21). Christ tells us that God cares for the sparrows on the roof (Matt. 10:29) and feeds the ravens (Luke 12:24).

Jesus declares, “It is finished!”

Cast your deadly “doing” down—
Down at Jesus’ feet;
Stand in Him, in Him alone,
Gloriously complete.

(Hymn, “It is Finished” by James Proctor and Ira Sankey)

 

Sacrifices Pay Off

Ex. 22:20   “Whoever sacrifices to any god, other than the LORD alone, shall be devoted to destruction.

Read Exodus 22:16-23:9

This past month we have seen nations and teams in floods of joy and floods of tears as their hopes at winning the World Cup either seemed to materialize or vanish before their very eyes.

President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil encapsulates what many other people felt as they watched the game, “My nightmares never got so bad.” Argentina’s Javier Mascherano, who kept his team’s hopes alive with a heroic, last-ditch tackle on Arjen Robben during the semifinal against the Netherlands, said that the pain of losing was “immense.”

Every team that lost a match during Brazil 2014 made great sacrifices just to qualify for the World Cup. This small vignette gives us a window into every human soul. We all have things we desperately want. We ask these things to grant us validation and appreciation.

We hope that the sacrifices we make will eventually pay off.

This law in Exodus 22 and 23 is sandwiched between a host of random laws. We find this law directly in the middle of these laws. It is the centre point on which all the laws hinge. Martin Luther, the 15th century German reformer, stated that all commandments hinged on only one: worshipping anything other than God. We all make sacrifices. We sacrifice our moral integrity, we sacrifice our character, we sacrifice anything and everything for a central goal in our life, a dream.

Exodus tells us that one day these things we sacrifice to will be unable to deliver the very thing they promise. Four years from now Germany will have to hand on the World Cup to another team. Their sacrifices for glory and fame will become impermanent. They will lead to a sense of loss, frustration and failure.

The Christian life is a life of sacrifice. It is a life marked by the very sacrifice of God Himself on the cross.  His sacrifice is what saves us from loss, frustration and failure. We find the only validation and glory that will never fade. We were worth the very life of God. We no longer sacrifice for redemption, we sacrifice because we have been redeemed.

You Could be Mine

“If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.” Exodus 22:1

Read  Exodus 22:1-15

Some years ago, the Church of Scotland was having a great meeting (one of its great assemblies) in the city of Glasgow. The mayor of Glasgow came to address the body, and he got up and said something pretty interesting.

He said, “You spend an awful lot of time debating as theologians about whether there is a God or what he’s like, and you spend an awful lot of time talking about God.” He said, “I’m not a theologian and most people aren’t. With all due respect, let me tell you what we really need from you. We do not need a lot of speculation about God and about theological discussions and such things and doctrine. Those things really don’t matter to the modern person anymore, and they don’t matter to us. Here’s what we need from you. How can we love our neighbor? How can we get along? How can we treat each other with kindness and with respect? We desperately need an answer to that question, and that’s what we’re looking for the church to give.”

I mention this not because you should be interested in Scottish politics but because it’s very common everywhere in the Western world. The opinion is, “What you believe about God is not critical. It is social problems that are critical. Whether you believe in God at all is not critical. The important thing is how do we get along? How can we treat one another with respect?”

These laws deal with the respect of personal property and stewardship. What Mr. Mayor missed was that Christ did not come to make us moral, but to rescue us. Morality is simply the by-product and not the end goal of Redemption.

Mr. Mayor, on what basis should I treat other human beings with kindness and respect? Mr. Mayor, on what basis should I be unselfish? Why should I deny myself anything? On what basis? If there is no God, the only reasonable answer to the question, “What are we?” is there is no difference between a human being and a bag of chemicals, our feelings to the contrary notwithstanding. If there is no God, we are all results of the accidental collision of molecules.

Christianity holds the view God created the world. It is his. Treating anything as “fully and completely” as our shows that we do not understand how gracious our Creator is in sharing his world with us. The cross shows us that even though God had everything, he gave it all up to die on a cross with us. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that sthough he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor 8:9)

God’s grace make us generous. It makes us honest in not stealing hours from our boss, not over billing hours to our clients. “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” (Eph 4:28)

Robert Murray M’Cheyne, a great Scottish preacher, put it this way. He said, “To give largely and liberally, not grudging at all, requires a new heart; an old heart would rather part with its lifeblood than its money.”

God’s grace makes us generous. Today be generous with your boss, with your clients, with your friends, and with your family. It is the only appropriate response to the Grace of God giving his life for you on a cross.

Man’s Best Friend

Ex. 21:33   “When a man opens a pit, or when a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,  34 the owner of the pit shall make restoration…

Read Exodus 21: 28-36

This is part of Exodus, Levitcus and Deuteronomy we normally skip over. Boring laws… More Boring Laws… Boring Laws about animals…

Have you ever wondered why some human beings keep pets? Is it just because we are lonely? Bored? Needy? The Bible gives a reason why this is jus a smaller illustration of the theological term, “cultural mandate.”

The cultural mandate is the belief that we are to bring God’s truth to bear upon every area of human society, from arts and literature, to politics, to government, to economics, to the schools, to scientific progress, and so on. It is based in Genesis 1:28 which says, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

We are to create God honouring culture. Even the way we treat animals is to be regarded as part of this sacred trust. Often we read passages like Genesis 1:28 and Exodus 21:28-36 and see them as only applying to animals. The bigger picture is actually realizing that this world is a “tale of two cities.” One is the the city of God and the other the city of man—either a God-honouring culture or a humanity-centred culture.

As Abraham Kuyper says: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’”

Laws about animals are more than that. They are laws which at the very heart ask, “Who are you centring your life around? What does your culture look like? Are you creating God-honouring culture? Or are you creating Self-honouring culture?”

Today remember Christ has declared you His. Live life as a steward and creator of culture.

 

 

 

 

Smashing Artwork

Exodus 21:23 But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life,  24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth…

Read Exodus 21:12-27

This passage is one of the most well known and least well quoted in the Bible. Context is very important. Examine these identical paragraphs but put see that the punctuation makes their context utterly different. Which letter would you prefer to receive.

Dear John:

I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart. I can be forever happy–will you let me be yours?

Jane

—- or —-

Dear John,

I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we’re apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?

Yours,

Jane

These verses in Exodus are not primitive verses urging violence and vengeance. They urge the exact opposite. They are an indictment of the very desire of the human heart for revenge. These verses speak of restraint compared to the unmitigated, unmeasured revenge that Ancient Near Eastern cultures and even our modern cultures sometimes espouse, “If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.” (Gen. 4:24) No more can men avenge themselves sevenfold, for this law imposes a strict limit of justice (Exodus 21:23).

It is difficult to understand all that is going on in Exodus without understanding the context of the first five books of the Bible. Life is important. God created it.

These “Laws on Life” are a declaration of the sanctity of life. All humans are made in the image of God. An assault on someone made in the image of God is an assault on God himself. If one were to deface MichaelAngelo’s statue “David,“ the stone would not bear the moral outrage of the offense, it would be the artist.

God is stating to his people, “You are fearfully and wonderfully made. I have given you life; it is a precious gift. Guard it.” In upholding human rights, we declare that God is the Lord of Life.

On the Cross, the Lord of Life shows us the true meaning of these verses in Leviticus, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.” (Lev. 17:11)

Every single one of us has committed cosmic vandalism at one point or another, whether in thought, word, or deed.  The penalty for cosmic vandalism is death, but the beauty of the Cross is that God pays out of his own pocket, out of his own flesh and blood the penalty for vandalism.

Lord, today we want to honour your image found in all humanity. We have marred it and disfigured it. Lord, would you transform us and renew us into the image and likeness of your Dear Son, we ask this all in the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Common Interests

 

Ex. 21:1   “Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. 2 When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.

Read Exodus 21:1-11

Grady Smith the writer for Entertainment Weekly “came out” recently. Yes, he admitted to his colleagues that he is a Christian. Tattooed on his arm are the words, “and that is what some of you were.”(1 Cor 6:11)

He is humorously illustrating how we find it nearly impossible to identify with anyone who has not shared our experience. As a Christian we are all part of this beautiful mess called humanity. Paul writes to the Corinthians, “You used to be just like your colleagues. You still needed redemption and grace.”

It is only apt that God would begin His commandments for communal living to his people with laws concerning the treatment of slaves. God’s desire for humanity is that they practice justice. “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today.” (Deut 15:15)

What God is basically saying is, “You used to be a slave. Now you are redeemed. Now you are a son. Treat everyone else like a son.”

The basis for dealing equitably and justly does not spring from a sense of moral superiority, it springs from a shared sense of family in the beautiful mess called humanity. We humans are capable of great acts of kindness and at the same time such acts of barbarism.

The realization that “once we were slaves, and now we are free,” should fill our hearts with compassion to those who are still enslaved by fear, worry, doubt, and stress. Paul puts it this way “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1Cor. 6:11)

The degree and measure that you give Grace to others directly shows how much Grace “think” you have received from God. If everyone in the world owes you something, it inherently stems from the fact that you actually believe God owes you something. If everyone in the world is deserving of grace, “or goes free for nothing” (Ex 21:1), then you may actually have grasped that you received a salvation that was extremely costly to God and extremely free to you.

Here Is Where the Magic Happens

Exodus 20:25 “If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it.”

Read Exodus 20:22-26

In the Mid-2000’s MTV featured a show called “Cribs.” It highlighted the extravagant lifestyles and houses of celebrities. Often these celebrities would bring the camera to this or that room and use a phrase, “This is where the magic happens…”

God is showing his people “where the magic happens.”  It is at the Altar that true forgiveness happens. It is at the altar God’s people would learn that a lamb died instead of them.

There is a portion of C S Lewis’ “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe,” where Lucy and Susan are distressed by Aslan’s death on the Stone Table blurt:

“Who’s done it?” cried Susan. “What does it mean? Is it more magic?” “Yes!” said a great voice behind their backs. “It is more magic.”

“It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.”

The Altar is not about man building a staircase to heaven. It is place where heaven comes down and touches earth.  God rescues the people of Israel before he ever gives the Law. He provides atonement for their sin before they ever try to earn his favour. Even the instructions for the building of the altar are meant to convey grace. “Don’t fashion the stones, I have already provided them. Don’t build a staircase to heaven, you will only expose how silly it is to try to climb to divine heights. I am the true altar and the true sacrifice.”

It is at the true altar, the Cross of Calvary, that we find the place of divine exchange. Our shame for his glory. The Exodus story itself is a story of death working backwards. John Stott put it magisterially when he said, “Sin is  Man substituting himself for God, Salvation God substituting himself for man.” Let God’s Resurrection course through you today.

Today pray: Lord work your Deep Magic in me.