I decided late last year that I wanted to do more bible readings in 2015 and I thought I would connect with Donna Reidland over at Soul Survival and do the readings with her through her daily plan.
So far so good, I have been enjoying reading through with her and then reading her commentary. It has been a blessing and I have felt focused on the scripture instead of trying to do it by myself.
I’m up to Exodus now and the children of Israel have left Egypt, gone through the Red Sea and are now in the wilderness near Mt Sinai.
So Moses was up the mount communing with God and Aaron and the people were at their camp. Moses was gone just too long and they started to grumble and complain. They asked Aaron to make a god for them so Aaron took all their gold and melted it and made a calf for them to worship.
Now God was so angry with them that he was going to wipe them off the face of the earth, but Moses pleaded with him to spare them and God did. Moses went down the mountain and called all the followers of God to himself and the rest – well you can imagine, it didn’t go too well for them.
I suppose what I have been thinking with this is that God was angry. He wasn’t just upset – he was angry and was going to wipe them away. He didn’t say Oh dear, look at that, they missed you Moses, come here and I’ll comfort you all. He said you are a stiff-necked people and you are going to suffer the consequences of your behaviour – hence the wandering around in the desert instead of enjoying the promised land.
Exodus 32:9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people!”.
God was angry because the people who He had brought out of slavery, who He was going to lead to the promised land had strayed and were worshiping another god.
Aren’t we the same, aren’t we always complaining about the way things are going, aren’t we worshiping other gods. We may not even realise that we are, but do we put sport over church on a Sunday. Do we watch too much TV when we should be with our family doing devotions. Do we care too much about how we look and how we feel???
These are the gods that we worship, the gods of sport, and I feel the biggest one, the god of self.
Then He sent his son Jesus, to die for us and to be the last sacrifice. Now God sees us through Jesus.
Ephesians 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.
I love that chorus:
I am redeemed by the blood of the lamb, saved from sin and I know I am. All my sins are taken away, Praise the Lord
I feel we should think more about falling on our faces and worshiping a God so great and so mighty that He could wipe us off the face of the earth with one word, but also a God who loved us so much that he sent His only Son to die for us, that our sins would be forgiven.
Let us remember how big and strong and MIGHTY our God is, let us have a reverence for Him and all that He is and has done.
This is just what I have been thinking about my Bible readings at the moment.
Blessings.
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