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Exodus 34

DAILY DEVOTION

FOR

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19

SCRIPTURE:  EXODUS 34

BY: Josh Boles

Today’s chapter is pretty lengthy so again, we do not have enough space to talk about everything in the chapter but there is one important thing I would like to focus on. Today we will briefly talk about the Law of God and how it applies to our lives. If you remember from two chapters ago the Israelites built the golden calf and were getting a little out of hand. Moses came down from the mountain, got angry, and broke the Ten Commandments. This brings us to yesterdays devotion where we talked about Moses interceding for the Israelites and now Moses is instructed to re-scribe the Ten Commandments.

It is comical to me that the Lord reminded Moses that he broke the first tablets. As I read this the first thing that pops into my mind is something that I think every parent has said to their kid. “This is why we can’t have nice thing.” That really doesn’t have any application, I just thought it was funny. At any rate, Moses is now heading back up the mountain to again, write down the Ten Commandments.

As we read through these commandments it is hard not to think about how crazy it is that some of these things are issues. If we take a look back at our journey together through Exodus however, it becomes clear why. All of these things are things the Israelites struggled with. If you take a look back to Genesis, man kind started with only one commandment. That was, do not eat the fruit. Pretty simple right? Now in Exodus chapter 34 we have an entire page full of laws just in response to things that have happened in the last few chapters. We are nearly done with our journey through Exodus and after Exodus is Leviticus, which is almost entirely Law.

There is a simple truth of doctrine that we need to know from all of this. God’s laws are only a response to human sinfulness. The more sin there is, the more laws that are needed. This has big implications for our lives today. Another truth statement is that all Scripture is useful and applicable to our lives. That means that every word has purpose for our lives even in the 21st century. Sometimes that is hard to understand when reading chapters like this. It is a common thing to hear Christ followers today say things like, “we aren’t under the Law anymore.” But this is not entirely true. We are under the New Covenant yes, but it is still a covenant with God and we still have a specific way that we should live, and laws we should obey.

So which laws exactly should we obey? There certainly are a lot of ceremonial and sacrificial laws that we do not have to partake in, thanks be to Jesus Christ. The Laws that we are to keep are any Laws that Jesus Himself repeats. Take for example Matthew chapter 5. The sermon on the mount is almost entirely quotes from there Law.

The point in all of this is that we simply cannot be left to live life how we want to. It does not work. The Bible is meant to give us a way to live. It is true that being a Christ follower is not just about obeying laws but once we have the love of Christ in our hearts we should desire to keep His commands. As I finished yesterday, live like you are saved today! Ask the Lord to search your heart and find the things that need to change.

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Exodus 35

DAILY DEVOTION

FOR

Friday, SEPTEMBER 20 

SCRIPTURE:  EXODUS 35

BY: Josh Boles

Most of our chapter today discusses more instruction on building the tabernacle. Since every word in scripture is God breathed and is useful there certainly would be something we could learn from this portion. I want to spend our time today however, talking about the Sabbath. I do not think this gets much of our attention in today’s society, but it should. Before we get into that lets take a few minutes to further develop the idea of how the Law works and is manifested in our lives.

Yesterday we talked about the Laws we are to submit too, are the ones that Jesus quoted in the New Testament. Let’s develop this a bit further. There are a couple of reasons why Jesus has this authority over us. One, being that he is 100% God. Another important fact about Jesus was that while on earth he was also fully man. He had the same struggles we did. He was tempted. He got hungry, and tired. In spite of all of this, he never signed not even once. On top of that, he fulfilled every Law in the Old Testament. We know that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. This is true for many reasons but the main reason is that He simply obeyed the Law.

This is why obedience should play an important role in our lives, simply because it was important to Jesus. What is important to Jesus should be important to us. Obedience was so important to Jesus that even though He cried out for mercy, he was obedient even to His death to suffer the weight of our sin on the cross. This has many implications for our lives but in the context of our chapter today, it means we should still honor the Sabbath.

One thing we should know about the Sabbath is that it is a Law, not a recommendation. This is much like the great commission. If we are in Christ Jesus, we WILL share the Gospel, not should. Laws are meant to be obeyed, thats why you get a speeding ticket if you are traveling significantly faster than the speed limit. God designed the very universe we live in with the sabbath day in mind. Remember, He rested on the seventh day. God was so serious about this that He even commanded that there Israelites be executed if they did not observe the Sabbath as we see in verse 2.

So let’s get to the application for us today. What does this mean for us? Let me start by saying that I do not believe that the concept of the Sabbath is set aside for a specific day (anymore). In the Old Testament there is significant evidence that this is true but not in the New Testament. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, and if you read Matthew 12 you will find Jesus defending his disciples for plucking some grain on the “Sabbath” day.

At the time of Matthew 12 the Sabbath had become much more about rituals and legalism than it did about holiness. This is what I ask you to consider today. Are you taking time to rest, and to consider your holiness? It is important that I say that taking a Sabbath has nothing to do with being lazy or watching tv and such. It has everything to do with our holiness. Notice how it says in verse 2 that it says “rest IN the Lord.” We are not having a Sabbath if we are not spending time with Jesus. I also do not believe that this simply means going to church for a couple of hours. I think that it means we set aside specific time each week to work on our relationship with Jesus. He did after all die for our sins. The least we could do is shift a few things around on our calendars! Find time to spend with your savior. Be encouraged!

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