Sat.’s Devo -The Covenant

Read: Exodus 23:14-25:40; Matthew 24:29-51; Psalm 30:1-12; Proverbs 7:24-27 The Passover that they ate the night they left Egypt was to be commemorated year after year so God told them exactly how to do that. The Passover would be celebrated to remember their great deliverance from bondage. Three feasts were to be celebrated in the spring to remember their deliverance. The Festival of Unleavened Bread would last 7 days where they were to eat only unleavened bread. Everyone must bring an offering. The last would be the Festival of Harvest (Feast of Weeks, Pentecost). They were to celebrate it at the end of the harvest season to thank the Lord for their bountiful harvest. God sent an angel to go before them and to protect them on their journey. They were to pay close attention to everything he said because he would be God’s representative and he would not forgive their rebellion. As long as they obeyed, he would help them but if they started worshiping other gods, he would be an enemy to them. When they entered the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, they were to completely destroy them and and their idols. If they served the Lord only, he would protect them from illness and there would be no miscarriages or infertility in their land. They would live long lives. God would send terror ahead of them to make the people afraid of them. He would drive out their enemies slowly giving them time to occupy the land. They were not to make any treaties with the people or their gods or they would lead them away from the Lord. The Lord called Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and seventy of Israel’s elders to the mountain. They could only go so far but Moses would go alone to the top. Moses took all these instructions down to the people and they agreed to do all of them. Moses built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve pillars or each tribe. He had men present burnt offerings on the altars and sprinkled the altar with blood. He read to them the law and the people agreed to obey it. Then Moses sprinkled the blood over the people. The covenant had now been made with God. Moses and the men climbed the mountain and they all saw the glory of God standing on a clear blue surface. They ate the covenant meal in his presence. Then God gave Moses the law etched on stone tablets. Moses told the men to stay there while God called him up further. He remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. The Lord told Moses to let the people offer their gold, silver, bronze, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goat hair for clothes, ram skins and fine goatskin leather, acacia wood, olive oil and spices, onyx stones and other gemstones. These were the spoils of Egypt. From them he would make the tabernacle, the furniture for the tabernacle and all the tools and clothes for the priests. God gave Moses exact dimensions of the furniture. He was to make a bronze altar, an incense altar, a giant menorah, a table of shewbread, a basin and the ark to hold the covenant. In Matthew, Jesus continued his explanation of the end times. The last sign would be the sun darkening and the moon giving no light. The stars will fall from the sky and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. The last plague of Egypt before the passover night was total darkness. They could watch the fig tree and when it begins to bud, they would know that the time was getting close. The fig tree is Israel. When Israel begins to wake up to the Messiah, they will know that the time is close. It will be like in the days of Noah when the demons were mating with humans and producing super humans. The people were oblivious to the flood that was about to end them. God admonishes us to watch and not be like the people of Noah’s time. Then, Jesus gives us a parable about a sensible servant that does his job of managing his life and his family well. This servant maintains what it important in life and doesn’t get side-tracked into the pleasures of the world. The wise servant will keep the fear of the Lord in his focus and stay true to the Word of God. Lord, this is our prayer. We accepted your covenant of blood on the cross and are your special possession. We will keep our hearts on you and live focused on what it important to you.