Scripture Passage for Today
Then Moses took the blood from the basins and splattered it over the people, declaring, “Look, this blood confirms the covenant the LORD has made with you in giving you these instructions.” (Exodus 24:8 NLT)
Observation
Just a thought before I get to my thought? (Like the preacher said, “I want to say something important before I preach.”)
Sometimes we read strong things in the Old Testament law and shrink back a bit. “You must not allow a sorceress to live,” for example. Or “Anyone who has sexual relations with an animal must certainly be put to death” (Ex. 22:18-19). For me all concern is dismissed when I put this covenant in context and think about what God had done for Israel. This is a covenant modeled on covenants between powerful kings and vassal states, and Israel owed their very existence as a people to Jehovah. They didn’t have to accept the terms of the covenant—they were free to reject the covenant and return to their slavery and status in Egypt. They were free to reject the covenant and wander the wilderness on their own.
But if they chose to enter into covenant with this unmatchable God who had both (1) delivered them from Egypt and (2) promised to make of them a great nation, He had a right to expect whatever He wanted from them! (Like Tyler Perry’s character, Madea, said to a teenager in her home complaining about invaded privacy—“You’ll get your privacy the day you sign your first lease!”)
All God expected was absolute loyalty. Anybody who had a problem with that was welcome to bail. This was not a majority-rules democracy. God was establishing Israel as a theocratic nation—a nation ruled by God. “Take it, and enjoy my covering, provision, and blessing, or leave it and do without. Makes no never-mind to Me either way”—Thus saith the Lord.
What I really wanted to say was this—Wow. Do you think the significance of this covenant was duly impressed upon the people when “Moses took the blood from the basins and splattered it over the people”? I’m no homemaker, but aren’t bloodstains terribly difficult to remove? Do you suppose every time an Israelite put on a bloodstained garment they were reminded again of the God who brought them out of Egypt, and the covenant responsibilities they’d committed to?
“Stain my garments, as it were, O Lord, and let me live remembering Your deliverance in my life, in order that I might live in unswerving loyalty to You!”
5 comments:
Wow! I have many questions but i will only ask one. Were the people that God led out of Egypt the only ones that He favored? It just seems that God would run over anybody in there way to get His people to the destination that He has set for them or is it just the ones that would oppose Moses and the people of Israel? Ok maybe two questions i will ask.
"Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work." I wish this was true for me. I have to work Friday thru Tuesday and my days off are on Wednesday and Thursday. I would love to have Sunday as a day I could praise God and to just have a family day. I love going to church on Sundays at Jefferson Assembly and I hate missing.
I to ask for the stain of Gods blood to keep me on track. right now I am very gratefull for you Pastor. Journey 66 was a great idea and it is keeping me on track! thankyou!
Great question(s), Joey. I’ll take the liberty of attempting a response.
First—although it doesn’t settle every issue—I think it’s worth remembering that Israel’s context was much more “rough and tumble” than our own. It is, in many ways, hard to comprehend how difficult humanity’s existence was c. 1400 B.C., how harsh the environment in which people lived (not just physically, but in every imaginable way), and—therefore—how “normal” it would have been for any people in Israel’s day to go hand-to-hand in a battle just to survive. Given our pampered existence (by comparison, for sure), it’s simply difficult for us to appreciate how much coarse and violent was Israel's world. An entire world culture doesn’t change just because God calls a people out of oppression. Indeed, the violence required to deliver Israel (including the death of every firstborn throughout Egypt and the utter destruction of Pharaoh’s most elite forces) boggles the contemporary mind. Bottom line, war was a way of life--a consistent reality.
Second, I do think that as a rule (acknowledging that there might be an exception out there somewhere I’m not remembering), military battles by Israel were (1) engaged with those who opposed them *or* (2) with those who occupied land that God had promised Israel (more on that below). The Egyptians, of course, were Israel’s oppressors, and God fought directly on Israel’s behalf to achieve freedom for them. In Exodus 17:8, it’s clear that “the warriors of Amalek attacked” Israel, so Israel’s actions constituted self-defense. By contrast, consider Deuteronomy 2, where Israel was to pass through Seir, which was inhabited by the descendents of Esau. Israel was instructed to be very careful not to “provoke them to war” because God had “given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own” (Deut 2:5).
In the case of initiating military action against the inhabitants of Canaan (in the book of Joshua, specifically), God’s purpose was two-fold: (1) To bring temporal punishment on inhabitants of the land whose sin required judgment (for more information see Genesis 15:16, where God informs Abraham that his descendants would spend some 400 years in Egypt before returning to possess Canaan, because “the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure”) and (2) to fulfill his promise to Abraham—not just of a land he would possess, but of descendents as numerous as the stars of the sky, through whom all nations of the earth would be blessed (Gen 26:4)—a reference to Jesus Christ. Giving Canaan to the Israelites, then, was part of God bigger plan to give redemption to all humanity.
And third and finally, as to Israel’s unique status with God—well, yes—fundamentally, that simply appears to be God’s sovereign choice. It does appear that Abraham’s descendents were granted that privileged status in part because they had no status or standing of their own in this world. Unlike the Assyrians, the Babylonians, or the Egyptians, Israel never did amount to anything until God made them His own and blessed them. As such, God’s sovereign choice points to His grace and His greatness.
Sorry so wordy—that’s how I roll, I'm told. :) Hope it was helpful.
As I sat and read all the laws and the sacrifices the Isrealites needed to do for God's covenant. I realized how lucky I was that I was born after Jesus's resurection. We have it very simple now. Accept Christ and you are forgiven. That is much easier than sacrificing all your firstborn animals and your best crops to the Lord. Praise God for being so merciful! Glen H
Thank you Pastor! It really did help me! God Bless!
Glen, it is so easy for us to come into God's presents and blessing, but we must always remember the pain and sacrifice Jesus went through for each of us!!!
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