Exodus 18-40.

This blog is a very very quick run though of the last 22 chapters of Exodus. Hold on to your seat belts.

The first thing that is noticeable in Chapter 18, is the origin of the Judges of Israel. Jethro sees Moses judging the people's cases all day, every day, and says that he is being exhausted. He offers him wisdom. Ready for it? YOU CAN'T DO IT ALL!

He advises Moses to make judges for the people of Israel, and they will judge each person, and the very difficult cases, will be brought to Moses. Which gives Moses another role. Moses is now officially, a Prophet and a Judge.

Jesus is also a Prophet and a Judge. Now, a person recently asked me why it is that I keep drawing these parallels between Moses and Jesus. And the reason for that is this. Moses prophesied that the Messiah would be like him. (He hasn't said that yet in the story yet though.)

The Rabbis claim that the Judges are their ancestors, and that each Judge appointed a successor, and that continues even to today. I'm not entirely sure how valid that is, but they look to this chapter and see their ancestral authority.

In chapter 19, God tells Israel their chosen purpose. God says "You have seen how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now, if you obey me completely and keep my covenant, you will be my treasured possession among all peoples, though all the earth is mine. You will be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation."

God delivered Israel by his power, and now Israel belongs to God. People who have been delivered owe a debt to God. An unimaginable debt. We are not freed from slavery. We are still slaves. We are delivered from Egypt. We are now love slaves to the Almighty God. So put your ear to the door.

Exodus 20. The Ten Commandments / The Two Commandments.

In essence, you can break down the ten commandments into two commandments. The Pursuit of Godliness, and the Pursuit of Righteousness. Now many do not understand the difference. Godliness is to pursue a right relationship with God, and putting God before yourself. Righteousness is to pursue a right relationship with other people, and putting them before yourself. In fact, they are even in that order. The first four commandments relate to how we should honor God, and the last 6 commandments relate to how we should honor men and women.

But Jesus said it this way. 28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

From Exodus 20-40 deal specifically with various laws, each holy and righteous, and good. But above all, each in line with the first two commandments. It also deals with different tabernacle furnishings. A point of which I would like to touch on later.

Exodus also tells of the people's sworn loyalty and their actual practice. They swear to serve Yahweh, and Yahweh alone, but while Moses is up on the Mountain of God, they make a golden calf, and worship it. From then on, God compares them to an Ox when they are rebellious, referring to them as "stiff-necked."

Exodus 31:3, 35:21, and 35:31 describes individuals who are filled with the Holy Spirit. And they are gifted by the Holy Spirit. Now, so far, we have heard of people filled with the Spirit, it has to do with Prophecy. Joseph was able to prophecy, and to have dreams, and interpret dreams. But here, surprisingly for Protestants, people are described of being filled with the Holy Spirit for the express purpose of making Icons. The Tabernacle, and the Ark of the Covenant, the lamp stands, etc, were all Icons that were meant to be reminders of God's providence and were used in the worship of the Almighty.

Which leads us to a question. Protestants have been opposed to Icons used by our Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox brothers on the basis of Exodus 20 warning against idolatry and God's strict commandment not to make anything "in the sky above or on the earth below or in the water's beneath the earth." But this has to be harmonized with the Ark of the Covenant and the Bronze Serpent, and other icons that Israel made. Is it possible that the various icons that our brothers and sisters in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches use in prayer were actually made by people who were filled with the Holy Spirit, and that God used them for that express purpose? I think so.