Written by: Freddy Hedley - Anglican Church Planting Initiatives
Exodus 24 v 1-7
The LORD told Moses, “You, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the older
leaders of Israel must come up to me and worship me from a distance. Then Moses
alone must come near me; the others must not come near. The rest of the people
must not come up the mountain with Moses.”
Moses told the people all the LORD’s words and laws for living. Then all
of the people answered out loud together, “We will do all the things the
LORD has said.” So Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. And he got
up early the next morning and built an altar near the bottom of the mountain.
He set up twelve stones, one stone for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. Then
Moses sent young Israelite men to offer whole burnt offerings and to sacrifice
young bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD. Moses put half of the blood
of these animals in bowls, and he sprinkled the other half of the blood on the
altar. Then he took the Book of the Agreement and read it so the people could
hear him. And they said, “We will do everything that the LORD has said;
we will obey.”
Notes
In the build-up to this account, Moses had received the Ten Commandments and
all the detailed guidelines on how to live as a holy nation. As we reach
the story here, God gives his final instruction to Moses and sends him back
to the Israelites. His final instruction to Moses is how he should begin
his first day under this new covenant between God and his people… Moses
is to begin with worship. Moses had just been through an awesome, life-changing
time: he had been in the company of the Lord, but had not died. Instead the
Lord had laid out his will for Moses and the Israelites. Moses’ whole
attitude to life must have shifted massively, and his mind must have been
racing! But God knew this, and he knew that Moses’ best response to
this life shift was to worship. Is this our first response to the life-changing
moments we face? Are you going through a really challenging or exciting time
now? Do you currently feel aware of God’s presence, or does he feel
distant? In this situation, is your first response to worship, and to give
everything you go through to God?
Back to the story: having heard these instructions from the Lord, Moses returned to the Israelites and told them everything God had said. The Israelites’ response is instinctive and from the heart: “(They) answered out loud together, ‘We will do all the things the Lord has said.’”(vs 3 & 7). When you hear the challenges that come from God’s word, do you respond like this? Do you look for the opportunity to say “Yes!” to God? What is God challenging you about at the moment? How will you respond to Him? Will you worship? Will you say “Yes!”
Prayer
Lord, give me the spiritual eyes and ears to see what you are doing and hear
what you are saying to me today; and give me the wisdom and heart to respond
to your presence in worship and affirmation. Amen
Exodus 24 v 8-11
Then Moses took the blood from the bowls and sprinkled it on the people,
saying, “This
is the blood that begins the Agreement, the Agreement which the LORD has made
with you about all these words.”
Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the older leaders of Israel went
up the mountain and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was a surface that
looked as if it were paved with blue sapphire stones, and it was as clear as
the sky! These leaders of the Israelites saw God, but God did not destroy them.
Then they ate and drank together.
Notes
A covenant is an agreement between God and his people. We refer to the Old
Covenant and the New Covenant, and how we are founded in one and freed in
the other. In other words, we are created according to God’s will and
image, which make up the heart of the Old Covenant; but under the New Covenant
with Jesus we are set free from the ways in which we fail to live up to the
agreement we first made. This passage is the moment that the Old Covenant
was sealed – when the Israelites agreed to follow the Lord’s
ways – and just as the New Covenant needed to be, it was sealed with
blood.
What follows this agreement is an amazing encounter with the Lord. The men that he had called to his mountain see God standing before them in awesome glory, but they did not die. They would have expected to die as they could not be touched by such holiness and perfection without being struck dead by the power. However, God sees these imperfect people and does not destroy them. Instead he eats and drinks with them!
The same is true today. You are invited into God’s presence, just as the Israelite leaders were. You are full of the same imperfections, and yet God reaches out to you anyway. His love for you is too great to withhold his presence from you if you ask for it. Under the New Covenant, you have complete access to him, because Jesus’ blood is the protection you carry, just as the Israelite leaders were protected by the blood of the Old Covenant. The question is: will you approach the throne of God with confidence today?
Prayer
Spend some time in quiet, approaching the throne of God. You can do this with
all the confidence that he has invited you. What are your needs today? What
are your hopes? Ask God to meet you in these places today.
Exodus 24 v 12-14
The LORD said to Moses, “Come up the mountain to me. Wait there, and
I will give you two stone tablets. On these are the teachings and the commands
I have written to instruct the people.”
So Moses and his helper Joshua set out, and Moses went up to Sinai, the mountain
of God. Moses said to the older leaders, “Wait here for us until we come
back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone who has a disagreement
with others can take it to them.”
Notes
The Israelites had agreed to follow the Lord in all his ways. Moses had spoken
all the words the Lord had spoken to him, and the people of God agreed that
they would obey the Lord. The problem is, people have bad memories, and God
knew this. He knew that for all their determination now, a time would come
(quite soon as it happened) when people would forget what their commitment
involved. To guard against this, the Lord calls Moses once more to Mount
Sinai so that he can give him stone tablets with the teachings and commands
given to Moses inscribed on them. This way, when the Israelites forgot the
Lord’s ways there would be a physical reminder amongst them… a
written source that could be returned to, and that would be able to point
them back to the ways of God through the words of God.
How does this apply to you today? Are there areas of your life where you know you have forgotten the Lord’s ways? Or do you have a sense that you have lost God’s voice in your life? Well, the Lord has set the same guard in place now. The Word of God is available to guide us daily in the way of the Lord. It can be found in both the Bible, where we can return to its written pages whenever we want, and also in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, with whom we are invited into a personal relationship. All we need to do is read the Bible, or pray, and we can hear God’s words reminding us of his ways. Why not ask the Lord to show you where you have forgotten him, and ask him to remind you of his ways today?
Prayer
Lord, show me if there are parts of my life where I have forgotten your ways.
Forgive me. Help me to remember the commitment I first made, and remind me
of your ways so that I can follow you closer from today. Amen
Notes
Moses was invited into the very heart of the presence of God. The Lord fell
on the mountain like cloud and fire, and so the Israelites knew it was him,
because this was the image of God they were used to as they followed him
to Mount Sinai: cloud by day, and fire by night. Moses, too, would have recognised
the Lord by this, but he also had another way of recognising him. Moses knew
his voice. When the Lord calls Moses to enter the cloud, Moses hears the
call. When the Ten Commandments are being given (Exodus 20), the Israelites
can only hear thunder and trumpets when the Lord speaks, but Moses recognises
the voice of the Lord. And so he can spend time in God’s presence… he
knows he is invited, and he hears what God says when they are together.
What about you? Do you recognise the voice of the Lord in your life? Do you hear him inviting you into his presence? God will reveal himself to you in ways you can recognise, just as he did to the Israelites, and so you can look for where the Lord is. However, he also invites you to join him in the cloud, where he wants to speak with you one on one. The difficulty is that there are so many voices that are vying for your attention: voices of wanting recognition, pride, fitting in, friends, culture, the media, the list goes on. How do you distinguish between these voices and the voice of the Lord? All you need to do is spend time in his presence… pray, read the Bible, get to know his ways. As you do this you will begin to recognise the Lord’s voice, hear his invitation, listen to his words and respond.
Prayer
Lord, I pray that you would help me to hear you more clearly today. I ask that
you would reveal yourself to me in a way I will recognise so that I can follow
you, and that I would know how to listen to you so I can hear your words
and respond. Amen
Exodus 25 v 1-9
The LORD said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites to bring me gifts. Receive
for me the gifts each person wants to give. These are the gifts that you should
receive from them: gold, silver, bronze; blue, purple, and red thread; fine
linen, goat hair, sheepskins that are dyed red; fine leather; acacia wood;
olive oil to burn in the lamps; spices for sweet-smelling incense, and the
special olive oil poured on a person’s head to make him a priest; onyx
stones, and other jewels to be put on the holy vest and the chest covering.
“The people must build a holy place for me so that I can live among them.
Build this Holy Tent and everything in it by the plan I will show you.
Notes
The Israelites have made and agreement with God to follow his ways, and Moses
has been called into the Lord’s presence to receive from him the stone
tablets with his teachings and commands on. Moses enters God’s presence,
but rather than just being given the tablets, he receives some amazing news:
God wants to live among them! He wants to be in such close contact that he
is at the heart of their community… living in a Holy Tent in the Israelites
camp. How exciting must this have been… the creator of the universe
wanted to spend his time with them, and they would get to spend all their
time around him.
But it did not stop there. God wanted the Israelites to be a central part of the building of God’s dwelling place… and they would do this by bringing gifts. God knew that each of them had been blessed with specific things that could build God’s dwelling place, and so he invited the Israelites to bring these things to him and to take part in God’s work.
This is an invitation he still extends to us all. He has given each of us gifts, so that we can in turn give them away, and his invitation is for us to give them back to him for the building of his kingdom. What an amazing honour! What are the gifts God has given you? For the Israelites it was physical things, and sometimes it is for us as well, but often it is talents, character, time, skills, spiritual gifts. What can you give to God to help build his kingdom today?
Prayer
Thank you Lord for the gifts you have given me, those that I have seen and
those I have not yet discovered. Help me to see where are the opportunities
to use these gifts for your kingdom, and to see how I can respond to your
invitation to join you in building your home here with us. Amen
Notes
Previously God chooses to use his people to build his home in the world. In
this passage we see the first thing the Lord wants to be built – a
place to meet with him. He has already said that he wants to live amongst
the Israelites, and here he describes how that will work: there will be an
Ark that the Israelites will build with God, and inside it will be the Agreement
between them. This is where they are to meet.
Having a place to meet with God remains a really important factor. However, we are no longer bound by there only being one specific location, or one person on behalf of many that meets with God. Instead, we are all invited to meet with him every day. Our Ark – his dwelling place – is different, but the principles are the same. His dwelling place is now in each of our hearts, but for that to be a valuable place it needs to be filled with the Agreement made between us and the Lord: the New Covenant, (see Exodus 24 v 1-7). It also may be helpful to access that place where God dwells in your heart in actual places. We walk with Jesus all the time, but sometimes it can be helpful to escape to a familiar place where you expect to be able to reach him, just as Moses had at the seat of mercy on the Ark. Do you have a special place to meet with God? Is your heart filled with the Agreement you made with God – that you live your life in his ways?
Prayer
Lord, I want to worship you and thank you for wanting to live with me. Help
me to escape with you today. Meet with me in a secret place and remind me
of your ways, and let them lead me today. Amen
Exodus 25 v 23-30
“Make a table out of acacia wood, thirty-six inches long, eighteen inches
wide, and twenty-seven inches high. Cover it with pure gold, and put a gold strip
around it. Make a frame three inches high that stands up all around the edge,
and put a gold strip around it. Then make four gold rings. Attach them to the
four corners of the table where the four legs are. Put the rings close to the
frame around the top of the table, because they will hold the poles for carrying
it. Make the poles out of acacia wood, cover them with gold, and carry the table
with these poles. Make the plates and bowls for the table, as well as the jars
and cups, out of pure gold. They will be used for pouring out the drink offerings.
On this table put the bread that shows you are in my presence so that it is always
there in front of me.
Notes
There are two features of this passage that I want to point to. The first is
the way that the Lord wanted even the mundane objects of his holy tent to
be made – out of the best wood, the best materials, and then overlaid
with pure gold. The Lord saw even the small aspects of the Israelites’ work
to be just as valuable as the “big” aspects. This is an essential
thing for us to grasp nowadays. The Lord sees all that we do, and he wants
all of it to be treated with great value. Any service we bring to him – things
we do, things we give, things we say or think – should be overlaid
with purity. And the source of our purity is Jesus – only through him
are we made pure. Our whole life is to be covered in the purity of Jesus
in our life. This is God’s will for us, and it comes first through
repentance… turning away from where we have not put Jesus at the centre;
and then belief… living our life from here on looking for God as your
guide. This is the first call that Jesus gave his followers in response to
the kingdom. (see Mark 1 v 15)
The second feature is the bread the Lord refers to at the end. What is interesting is that for the bread to be “always there in front of (God)” (v 30) then it must be renewed each day. The bread was the sign that the Israelites were in the Lord’s presence, and so they needed to approach God every day with new bread to remain in his presence. Do you approach God afresh every day? Do you look to live a life of repentance and belief anew each day, so that you draw God further into your daily life?
Prayer
Take a few moments to meditate on this passage and ask God to revel to you
areas of your life that need to be laid in purity. Ask the Lord to take you
through repentance and belief so that you can approach him with confidence
afresh each day.
The views expressed by the writers of our daily e-mails are not necessarily those of Church Army or word-on-the-web but of the individual writers.
word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes