Tues.’s Devo - The Law is Given

Read: Exodus 19:16-21:21; Matthew 23:13-39; Psalm 28:1-9; Proverbs 7:1-5 On the morning of the third day, God came down in the cloud amidst thunder and lightning. The whole mountain shook and was surrounded with smoke. A ram’s horn blew and got louder and louder. God called Moses up into the cloud. *** The Lord told Moses to go back down and warn the people not to break through the boundaries to see him or they would die - even the priests. So Moses told them this. Then God spoke to them the ten commandments. He reminded them that he was the one who brought them out of Egypt and freed them from their bondage. He was the only one they should worship. They were not to represent him in any man-made way, or worship his creation. God was a jealous god and would punish their sins upon the third and fourth generation, but he would show mercy to those who kept his commandments. *** His commandments are self-explanatory with the first four having to do with man’s relationship with God, and the other six with man’s relationship with man. *** After God had spoken these, the people were so afraid of God’s voice that they told Moses to speak to them for God, because it scared them to death. That was exactly what God intended to do. He wanted them to fear him so they wouldn’t sin and hurt themselves. *** The people backed away from the mountain in fear but God spoke to Moses further. He told Moses that they were not to make him a god of silver or gold, but they could make an altar of the earth to burn their sacrifices on. If they made an altar of stone it couldn’t be hewn stones. God’s altar was to have nothing to do with man’s work. Neither were there to be steps going to the altar that their nakedness would not be seen. ***Symbolically, we do not have to climb “steps” to get to God. We come to him as we are and he accepts a pure heart. We may not pray the “sinner’s prayer” or believe, repent, and confess; salvation is not a formula. A simple prayer from a sincere and humble heart is totally acceptable to God. The Holy Spirit leads a person through the process. *** The laws after that were very specific and fair. A person who bought a Hebrew as a slave had to set him free after six years. We who have been slaves to an evil system for six thousand years are about to have our Jubilee and be set free, but it will be our choice to take it. Some in this case couldn’t leave things and people they had gotten attached to. In our day it will be the same. The one who chose to stay with his wife and children was not condemned but he was marked as a slave forever. We can take that both ways. We choose to be a slave to the gospel, just as Paul said he was a slave to Christ. God made sure the person had a choice in the matter. We will have to wait and see how this plays out in the future. *** Verse 16 deals with kidnapping and trafficking people. The sentence is death. We are about to see that one play out in the next year. *** In Matthew, Jesus unleashes a chain of offenses against the scribes and Pharisees. They were the ones who were in charge of leading the people to God, but instead they made it impossible to approach him or please him. They made the people think that they had obtained this position with God when they were farther from God than the people. Every time Jesus said, “Woe” he was saying “Cursed”. He was proclaiming their sentence. He ended it with “You will not see me till you can say, ‘Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.’” *** Lord, may we have clean hands and a pure heart. May we be fair and have love for our enemies. May we not judge but rejoice in righteousness and justice. May our godly leaders have wisdom and always fear you.