Today I read Exodus 17-19. My mind is exploding. There are some things here to take notice of. I hope that as I share these thoughts, it helps you approach reading the bible like a journey of discovery too!
Exodus 17-19
Link to Online Bible to read Exodus 17-19 is here
First, we are watching Moses deal with the people, crying out for water. But what they were really saying was,
‘Is the Lord among us or not?’ (V7)
Sounds familiar?
But then we read a seemingly irrelevant sentence.
‘Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim’
Who is Amalek and why should we care?
Amalek was a descendant from Esau, Jacobs brother. He had just made a HUGE mistake picking a fight with the people God had just delivered. The people were weary, tired, but victorious. And then Amalek comes to fight them.
This one thing made God swear he would ‘utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven’ (v14). Do you know that this is not dealt with until David? One of the incredible things David did was to destroy Amalek – no wonder God loved him so much, he paid attention to the will of God.
Exodus 18 takes us into the space of Moses, caring for the people.
What fascinates me is where he says ‘I do make them know the statutes of God and his laws’ (18:16). This is before the 10 commandments, before the law is given. Have you noticed that?
Similarly you can read these verses where it’s like in Gen 26:5 where you read about Abraham ‘Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes and my laws’.
How was this possible? No law had been given. No statues had been laid out.
So, these 10 commandments that people put so much stock in, that the church holds onto as a framework, were not even in laid out form.
Getting to know God
Abraham and Moses got to know God himself, the way he thought and acted.
No wonder Paul tells us that the law is obsolete, it was fulfilled now in Christ.
Those 10 commandments, and the laid out laws, were a schoolmaster until a better way came.
But here we see that actually, Abraham and Moses had already discovered this better way. No wonder the whole book of Romans is about Abraham and this faith.
Stunning!!!!
God with His people
And then we come to Exodus 19; wow!
God tells them, I delivered you from that life, I carried you like you were on eagle wings and brought you to myself, you’re a peculiar people because you’re mine – all the earth is mine. Now prepare yourselves, I want to speak with you.
So, they have to wash their clothes and prepare themselves for this meeting.
(Makes me long for those beautiful old days when people dressed with great care and class to go to church, not in these hole-filled jeans and tattoos of the modern space).
‘And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trump excepting loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.’ (V16)
The people absolutely freaked out.
The Fear of God is a real thing
Hebrews 12 tells us what happened and the difference between what happened there, and what has happened now because of Jesus:
‘For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest. And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated THAT THE WORD SHOULD NOT BE SPOKEN TO THEM ANY MORE:
(For they could not ENDURE that which was commanded, and if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake).
BUT
You are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant…..
WOW! WOW! Wow!
Do we understand the gospel of Jesus Christ? The Kingdom of God?
The assembly of the first born?
This is no local church. This is glorious.
Israel had a moment. God was really showing himself to them, so they knew who was with them, going into the promises.
Now we have the Holy Spirit and a new covenant.
Same God, different modality.
Puts everything else to shame by its greatness.
