Fri.’s Devo - Our Redeemer

Read: Exodus 34:1-35:9; Matthew 27:15-31; Pslam 33:12-22; Proverbs 9:1-6 God told Moses to chisel out two new tablets and meet him on top of the mountain and he would write the laws on them again. Moses met the Lord with his tablets and God came down in a cloud proclaiming himself to be Yaweh which means Jehovah - the one who was, who is and who is to come. God explained that he was the God of compassion and mercy. He is slow to anger and forgives iniquity, rebellion and sin. But he is also a judge to the unrepentant guilty. Moses fell down and begged the Lord to go with them. He promised to go before them and drive out their enemies. He warned them to not make a covenant with the people living in the land. He gave Moses the requirements for the feasts they were to remember to celebrate each year. These were future events they were to rehearse. When Moses came down from the mountain his face shone from being in God’s presence. The glory on Moses’ face made the people afraid of him so he had to wear a veil when he talked with them. Moses called them all together and gave them the commandment about the Sabbath and told them that if they worked on that day thymus be put to death. They were not even to light a fire in their homes on that day. Then he asked for gifts of the long list in 35:5-9. Those with generous hearts were to give of what they had in abundance to the Lord. God told them that every first-born animal was His. They could buy back a donkey but if they didn’t, they had to break its neck. But, there was no option for their first-born sons - they had to buy them back. This has to do with redemption. The first-born has to do with our first birth. We are born in sin and have to be bought back. Jesus did that for us when he came but this was before that. The donkey was known as being totally stubborn. If they didn’t redeem him, he had to be killed. The donkey was the unrepentant person who, like Pharaoh had a hard heart. God gave them the rules for the rest of the feasts. The feasts always came at harvest times giving the people an offering to bring to the Lord. They were to bring the Lord the best of the harvest. Moses presented the people with the second stone tables. When he finished he covered his face but when he went into the Tabernacle he took his veil off. The people were the ones whose refused to see, so he refused to show them God’s glory. Moses gave the leaders the rules about the Sabbath and they were to make sure they were instituted. He told them to ask the people to voluntarily give to the Lord the things they would need to build and furnish the service of the Tabernacle. In Matthew, The governor customarily released a prisoner every year during the Passover celebration. I guess that was his gift to the Lord. He took a man named Barnabas which was the total opposite of Jesus in every way and gave the crowd the option. He thought that for sure they would choose Jesus to be released. The religious leaders instigated the crowd to ask for Barnabas to be released and Jesus to be crucified. Jesus would be the scapegoat. The Roman soldiers did their mockery of Jesus and finally led him to be crucified. Lord, it is hard to read the cruelty that you went through on that day to buy back our salvation but we are truly grateful. Thank you for taking the veil away that we might see. Help us to see even clearer.