"Separated" January 24 Readings: Exodus 19-24

Today's Reading - Exodus 19-24

Background

The Ten Commandments, the basis of God's law. In reality, there are only two laws. Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. The first four commandments explain how to love and honor God and the last 6 are about honoring our neighbors as ourselves. The rest of the laws of the Old Testament are designed to expand on the Ten laws which expand on the two.

The laws we read in chapters 21-24 have several key purposes, beside expanding and illuminating the Ten.

• They call on Israel to eschew idolatry in all forms and to worship and serve God faithfully. 
• They require personal responsibility. If you break it, fix it. If you take it, give it back. 
• They require justice and mercy. Treat people honestly, fairly, and with compassion. Don't oppress people to get rich. 
• They require sexual and moral purity. 

There are no doubt strange laws that we have trouble understanding. They can seem harsh in some areas. but many of them are common sense and come out of God's desire that people be treated justly and that purity, decency, and fidelity dominate Israel's culture.

Devotional - Separated 

So often, when we consider what Christ does for us, we think small. Last week I was stressed out and God helped me. God gave me something I needed; he answered a prayer. All of those are great blessings and we ought to take time to say thank you for those things. 

But it is also helpful if we remember the biggest of the big thing that God has done for us. In Exodus 24:1-2, we come face to face with one of the great works of God; one of those big things that God has done for us. We see that even though God was at work within Israel there was distance caused by their sin. Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and seventy elders were allowed to come and worship God, but only from afar. Moses and he alone was allowed to draw near to the Lord. The people were kept away, not able to enter God's presence. 

Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”

Moses was invited into the awesome presence of God, but everyone else was excluded - he was to go alone. God worked in Israel through a mediator. He spoke to Moses, then Moses spoke to the people. 

That is what sin does; it builds walls that separate us from God. Adam and Eve were created to live in intimate fellowship with God but they left that behind to embrace their sin. Distance from God became the natural human condition. Even when God was drawing near to Israel that distance remained. Moses was accepted into the presence of God while the Israelites were left cowering at the foot of the mountain. He went to God on their behalf and brought God's word back to them. 

Many years later another mediator came between God and man. He did not ascend a hill to receive the law, but he ascended a cross to pay the price for our sins. By that act of sacrifice, Jesus broke down the dividing wall and brought back into the relationship with God that was lost by sin. 

Now, because of Jesus, the cause of the estrangement is gone and no one needs to be separated from God. The redeemed are reconciled to God and can approach the throne of grace with boldness, confident that we are accepted in Christ. Our sin, which caused the separation, has been paid for and forgiven and its ability to enslave and isolate has been nullified. 

Take a moment and imagine you are an average Israelite in that day. You stand in a crowd at the bottom of the hill while Moses and the other leaders disappear into the presence of God - a place you are prevented from going. How awful to be excluded from the presence of God. Now, come back to the present day and be glad that there is no wall, no separation from God. Jesus Christ has reconciled us to God and we are welcome in the presence of God. The wall is down and heaven is open to the redeemed. 

Father, thank you for giving your Son for my sins so that I might be reconciled to you. I rejoice that Jesus was my mediator and has brought me to you. I come to you humbly, knowing that it is not by my righteousness or my works that I may come. But I also come before you in confidence, knowing that Christ paved the way and I may approach you in his name. 

Think and Pray

Reflect on this truth - that you were separated from God and excluded from his presence, but Christ was your mediator who reconciled you to God.
Think through the Commandments and see how your life matches up. They are not a means of salvation, but they do reveal what God considers important.