Fri.’s Devo - God Gives His Laws

Read: Exodus 19:16-21:21; Matthew 23:13-39; Psalm 28:1-9; Proverbs 7:1-5 On the third day, the cloud that they followed covered the mountain while thunder and lightning filled the sky. There was a blast of the ram’s horn that grew louder and louder and wasn’t blown by a human. God came down on top of Mt. Sinai and called Moses up to him. God had told Moses not to let the people come up to the mountain and even touch it or they would die. God told Moses to go back and bring Aaron with him but not the priests or the people. Moses went down and told them what the Lord had said. God gave Moses what we call the Ten Commandments. Jesus summed them up with two. The first was to love the Lord with all your heart - then you wouldn’t have any other got but Him or make an idol or image of him or misuse his name and you would observe the Sabbath and keep it holy. The second was to love your neighbor as you love yourself which would cause you to honor your parents, not murder or commit adultery or steal or testify falsely against your neighbor or covet your neighbor’s things. All the sounds and sights scared the people greatly. Moses explained that God came in that way so they would fear him and not sin. He spoke to them directly from heaven so they would know that God doesn’t talk through idols, but directly to their hearts. God told them to make an altar of uncut stones and without steps. The altars of Egypt were carved with figures and ornaments that lead to superstition and all sorts of occultist practices. It was not to have steps as for the sake of decency since the priests wore loose, wide, flowing garments. Jesus warned the people not to be impressed with the long fancy prayers of the Pharisees because their hearts were naked before him and evil. As priest before God, we can’t fool God with our self-righteousness because we are naked and exposed before him. We come as we are, humbly with no pretense and he accepts us and clothes us with his robe of righteousness. Then God gave Moses rules for relationships with slaves, their families, and spouses. He gave them the laws about what to do with evil-doers and their punishment. One that got my attention was the one about if a master gave a wife to a slave. At the end of the sixth year if he decided he didn’t want to leave his wife and children, he would choose to remain a slave and have his ear pierced to the door and serve his master his whole life. That is what Adam did in the garden. He was given a wife by the Lord and when she was deceived he could have chosen not to sin and stayed in the garden while she was exiled. Instead he chose to stay and be a slave to sin his whole life because of his love for his bride. Jesus did the same. God gave him a wife, us, and he chose to be the sacrifice for our sin so that we could be restored to relationship with him. We have to make that same choice to leave this world and be pierced to the door which is Christ and live our lives as slaves to him. The better news is that Christ doesn’t consider us slaves but friends of him and his bride. In Matthew, Jesus nails the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and religious leaders. They were so concerned with appearances but their hearts were wicked to the core. They not only hurt themselves but kept the people from the truth that was entrusted to them. They would be held responsible for the blood of all the murders from Abel to Zechariah (A to Z). They would be held responsible for rejecting the Messiah. Lord, we treasure your commands and hide them in our hearts that we won’t sin against you or our fellow man.