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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Friday, July 16, 2021
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :The Covenant is Sealed Bible Verse:Exodus 24:1-11 (ESV) "Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.” Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the decrees. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 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. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank." Message:
Notice the structure of Exodus. Moses must write down the laws that God has given him, and so the narrative ceases and the book spends several chapters reciting the laws. In Chapter 24, we pick up the narrative where we left off in Ch. 19. This interweaving of history and law continues throughout the Pentateuch.
Today’s verses describe a ritual that seals or formalizes the Covenant. Another altar is built, this one with twelve pillars. Although God has commanded that all pillars of Asherah be destroyed, He clearly does not mind holy pillars; it is the meaning, not the form, that differentiates the sacred and profane.
Marc Chagall, Moses and the Burning Bush, Exodus
The ritual itself is foreign and rather gross to the modern eye. There is no indication that God decreed the particulars of the ritual; rather, it was a common form of making a treaty, or any very important contract, especially one involving forgiveness. An animal would be slaughtered and divided, and the parties would walk between the halves. Even the New Testament tells us that “without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.” (Heb. 9:22)
Ancient people were more aware than we, of an inescapable truth: a human cannot live unless something else dies. All food derives, ultimately, from photosynthesis. We hide the messier and more arduous aspects of food production from our eyes, which certainly makes life much more pleasant for most of us; we would shriek in horror if somebody sprinkled blood on us. But we must recognize intellectually, even if we cannot change our emotional revulsion, that our horror of blood is an effeteness that comes as a by-product of our comfortable lives.
But the form of the ritual is unimportant. The critical point is that the Hebrews, each and every one, assented to the Covenant in an unmistakably solemn ceremony. It was a form of ritual that they understood, and that they knew was solemn and sacred.
The elders are allowed to go partway up the mountain to see God. The appearance of God Himself is not recorded, and they may not have seen much more than bright light or mist. But they saw a remarkable sight, for the rock beneath Him was as clear as crystal and, apparently, sky blue. Thus, they were reassured that whatever phenomenon they perceived when they saw God was a marvelous and supernatural occurrence.
Meditation : Prayer : Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant equip us with every good thing that we may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight; through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever........Amen |
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