Corporate Devotions: Exodus (Part 7)
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Monday
Reading: Exodus 31
Questions for Reflection:
We often conceive of the Spirit’s activity as limited to work that feels spiritual. Verses 3-4 push back on that notion, reminding us just how extensive his empowering ministry really is. Thank the Lord for being a good Father who equips us with all we need to do his work. Ask him to fill you with “ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship” for the work he has called you to do today.
Think about the significance of verse 6. God never commands us to accomplish a work without giving us the abilities we need, both corporately and individually. Ask the Lord to help you trust him that he will never call you to do something and abandon you to figure it out on your own. Ask the Lord to provide the leaders we need as a local church to do the work he has called us to as a body.
Keeping the Sabbath, for Israel, was all about dependence on the Lord. Rest from their work in a physical sense illustrated their need to rest in the Lord in a spiritual sense. Thank the Lord for sanctifying you. Ask him to help you trust in the work he is doing to make you holy, not your own willpower.
Some think work is the ultimate good and rest is a sign of weakness, a necessary evil that’s sole purpose is to prepare you for more work. How does verse 17 push back on that lie? How does God’s rest dignify our own?
Song: A Christian’s Daily Prayer
Tuesday
Reading: Exodus 32
Questions for Reflection:
Go back and read Exodus 24:17-18. Now think about the significance of Exodus 32:1. The trouble began with Israel’s unwillingness to wait for the Lord and his appointed mediator, Moses. They insisted on “worshiping” a tame god they could control and see at their discretion. Confess to the Lord areas of your life where you have struggled or failed to wait for him.
In the second half of verse 1, notice how the Israelites dismissive attitude toward God is mirrored in their dismissive attitude toward Moses. Our attitude toward God is inseparable from our attitude toward the authority figures he has established. Ask the Lord to forgive you for where your impatience toward human authorities or leaders exposes your impatience toward him.
The utter insanity of the people’s declaration in verse 4 would be laughable if it didn’t hit so close to home. Read 1 Corinthians 10:6-7 and ask the Lord to show you where in your life you have foolishly convinced yourself that a created thing, something or someone other than him, can deliver you from suffering.
God must be worshiped, as David Peterson says, in the way that he alone proposes and makes possible. That’s what all the detailed instructions for the tabernacle were designed to teach Israel. The religious syncretism in verses 5-6 cuts the complete opposite direction. Ask the Lord to help you resist the temptation to worship him on your own terms, doing whatever you feel like doing in the name of “worshiping” him, instead of humbly submitting to his Word.
Song: I Will Wait for You
Wednesday
Reading: Exodus 32
NOTE: We aren’t moving quickly through this chapter as it is too important in the storyline of the Old Testament to rush.
Questions for Reflection:
Read Hebrews 7:25 and Romans 8:34. Notice how Moses sacrificial intercession on behalf of Israel in verses 11-13 and verses 31-32 points forward to the work of Christ. Ask the Lord to have mercy on you for the sake of his renown (verse 12) and his promises to you in Jesus (verse 13).
Both the Lord and Moses feel “hot anger” in the second half of chapter 32. It reminds us our idolatry is a big deal, not a small slip. As Moses’ actions in verse 19 indicated, it’s a covenant shattering act by which we align ourselves with evil instead of remaining “on the Lord’s side” (verse 26). Ask the Lord to guard you from becoming dull or insensitive to the seriousness of sin.
Aaron’s excuse in verse 24 for how the golden calf was made shows just how desperate we are to shift the blame for sin away from ourselves. Are there any relationships or roles in your life where you struggle to humbly take responsibility for your actions? When someone corrects you, are you quick to respond or quick to get defensive?
The final verse (verse 35) of chapter 32 is grieving. The very judgment the Egyptian enemies of Israel received (plagues) has now fallen on Israel. It reminds us just how much we all need a Savior. None of us deserves God’s favor. Ask the Lord to help you humbly recognize that apart from Christ, you deserve his judgment just as much as anyone else.
Song: Shine Into Our Night
Thursday
Reading: Exodus 33
Questions for Reflection:
This whole chapter focuses on the glory of God’s presence, our need for it, and our response to it. Imagine what Moses experienced when the Lord spoke to him “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (verse 10). Why do you think Joshua wouldn’t leave the tabernacle even after Moses did? Nothing satisfies our souls like intimate fellowship with the Lord. Ask the Lord to help you treasure the gift of his presence. Align your heart with Joshua by praying Psalm 63:1-2 back to the Lord in your own words.
Would you be content if God gave you abundant material provision and physical protection but withheld the gift of his presence? That’s the real test in verses 1-3, which Moses passes with flying colors in verse 16. Praise God for making a way through Jesus for “stiff-necked” sinners like us to experience his presence and not be consumed. No other religion holds out the blessing of intimate, personal relationship with the God of the universe.
Israel had to go to a tent “outside the camp” in order to meet with God. Read John 14:16 and thank the Lord that you can meet with him right now, wherever you are, because the Spirit dwells within you.
The Lord’s response in verse 19 to Moses’ request in verse 18 is stunning. The centerpiece of God’s manifold glory is his “goodness,” his sovereign grace toward his people. Thank the Lord for being a God who is good in all he is and does. Remember goodness isn’t something he does, it’s who he is at the core of his being.
Song: The Goodness of Jesus
Friday
Reading: Exodus 34
Questions for Reflection:
Thank the Lord for being a God who renews and restores the covenant we break. When we are unfaithful, he remains faithful (see verse 1). How have you experienced as much in your own life?
There is nothing casual or chummy about Moses’ encounter with God. Does Jesus enable us to enjoy continually what Moses only experienced occasionally? Yes. Does that mean we should think of God as some sort of “bff” or divine boyfriend? Not in the least. Ask the Lord to give you a holy reverence for his glory that you might stand in awe of him the way Moses did in verse 8.
The Lord’s proclamation in verse 6-7 of his “name,” the essence of his character, is taken up and repeated throughout the Old Testament as the basis of our appeal to God for salvation (see Psalm 86:15; Psalm 103:8; Joel 2:12-14). It also introduces a tension that remains unresolved until the crucifixion of Christ, namely, “How can the Lord both forgive ‘iniquity and transgression and sin’ and yet ‘by no means clear the guilty’?” Thank the Lord for vindicating the glory of his justice and mercy at the cross.
The contrast between steadfast love to thousands of generations and righteous judgment to the “third and the fourth generation” makes a loud statement about the character of God. Ask the Lord to help you believe, both in your life and in the lives of other struggling saints, that Romans 5:20 is true. Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.
Song: My Redeemer’s Love