Posts Tagged with "Exodus"

"Is there a grander and yet more overlooked biblical theme than the glory of God? God's glory appears in every major part of the Bible and affects every major doctrine. It is also notoriously hard to define. In general, God's glory is the magnificence, loveliness, beauty and grandeur of his perfections. Sometimes, the glory of God designates God himself. More often, glory ...

"The ceremony itself was so vivid and extraordinary as to be memorable, and its memory was intended to keep in the consciousness of the people the fact that God had joined with the people of Israel in a formal, official covenant to which both he and they were bound by oath." Douglas Stuart "God is always busy handing out invitations to his feast. Every time the gospel is ...

"Truly, this was exciting. The Book of the Covenant showed the Israelites how the law applied to daily life. Regulations about livestock grazing in a field may seem mundane. However, this is where most of us live most of the time-at the level of ordinary existence. Thankfully, God is as interested in this part of our lives as he is in anything else that happens in his worl...

"'Dressed stones' were used by the people of Canaan to construct their altars, because they were building materials of the highest quality from which all the roughness had been chiseled away. An altar made from such costly and aesthetically pleasing stone would be a tribute to human craftsmanship, but it would be defiled from the Lord's point of view because it distracted ...

"Human language is necessarily imperfect. Since man's fall, and especially since the confusion of tongues at Babel, there has not only been a difference in speech between one nation and another, but also between one individual and another. Probably, we do not all mean exactly the same thing by any one word that we use; there is just a shade of difference between your meani...

"'Thou shalt not covet' is the inspired commandment which shows the man who thinks himself to be moral that he really needs a Savior. The average such 'moral' man, who has lived comparing himself to other men and comparing himself to a rather easy list of rules, can feel, like Paul that he is getting along all right. But suddenly, when he is confronted with the inward comm...

God's will is that I never give false testimony against anyone, twist no one's words, not gossip or slander, nor join in condemning anyone without a hearing or without a just cause. Rather, in court and everywhere else, I should avoid lying and deceit of every kind; these devices the devil himself uses, and they would call down on me God's intense anger. I should love the ...

"Stealing threatens the social order and causes pain to others by undermining the ability to possess with sure access things that are useful and needful. The food thief makes others go hungry; the work animal thief interrupts farming; the kidnapper tears apart a family; the clothing thief makes another suffer from the sun or the cold." Douglas K. Stuart "Stealing may conv...

"Now he prescribes capital punishment, not as a deterrent-deterrence is not discussed-but as a signal that murder is in a class by itself, in that it kills a being made in the image of God." Don Carson "God takes cognizance of the emotions from which the acts of hate may spring, and calls us to account as much for the angry feeling as the murderous deed. Words also come u...

The Bible has a deep revulsion to this kind of disrespect, treating it with a kind of horror. When I was a youth pastor, I once took my high school students through the Biblical passages that deal with disobedience to parents. Not surprisingly, by the time I finished reading these passages, the kids in my youth group were very quiet. Like most young people, they had always...

"Whatever it does to help people recuperate from being physically tired, this is incidental not primary." Douglas Stuart "Jesus was not abolishing the canonical authority of the Old Testament but correctly orienting it to terminate in his own authority. D.A. Carson explains that 'the OT's real and abiding authority must be understood through the person and teaching of him...

"All the people were hearing the voice of God just as Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham and the patriarchs heard it and as Moses heard it earlier at Mount Sinai when God first called him." Douglas Stuart "Unlike the first two commandments, here God refers to himself in the third person. There is a special reason for this. First God said, 'You shall have no other gods before me' (E...

"'The jealous God'-doesn't it sound offensive? For we know jealousy, the green-eyed monster as a vice, one of the most cancerous soul-destroying vices that there is; whereas God, we are sure is perfectly good. How, then, could anyone ever imagine that jealousy is found in him? God's perfections are matter for praise-but how can we praise God for being jealous?" J.I. Packer...

"The spiritual reality for many of us is that the one thing is not the Lord. And the danger in that reality is this: your one thing will control your heart, and whatever controls your heart will exercise inescapable influence over your words, choices and actions. Your one thing will become that which shapes and directs your responses to the situations and relationships of ...

"Jesus insistence that the had come not to 'abolish' but to 'fulfill' the law and the prophets deserves to be ranked among the most important New Testament pronouncements on the significance of the law of Moses for the new Christian era...Integral to Matthew's gospel is a scheme of salvation history that pictures the entire Old Testament as anticipating and pointing ...

"The magnitude of what the Lord offers the Israelites is staggering and must not be overlooked. As fleeing slaves, they find themselves in the middle of the Sinai desert without a land to call their own. The Lord, however, promises them they shall be his 'treasured possession." His exclusive possession among all the nations, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." T. Desm...

"This was a formal speech, as the style of language indicates. God addressed his people using their proper titles because he was setting forth the terms of their relationship. To use the biblical term for it, he was renewing the covenant, his binding love commitment to his peopleReally everything else in the Old Testament-indeed everything else in human history-can be expl...

"Although it is often assumed that Moses raises his hands in prayer, prior references in Exodus suggest that the raised staff is the medium through which the power of God flows. While this might have involved prayer, something more than prayer was taking place." T. Desmond Alexander "This verse does not teach the efficacy of prayer without ceasing but rather the triumph o...

"I am drawn to people who suffer without murmuring. Especially when they believe in God but never get angry with him or criticize him. It seems to me that not murmuring is one of the rarest traits in the world. And when it is combined with a deep faith in God-who could alter our painful circumstances, but doesn't-it has a beautiful God-trusting, God honoring quality that m...

"Why should people who have witnessed so spectacular a display of the grace and power of God slip so easily into muttering and complaining and slide so gracelessly into listless disobedience? The answer lies in the fact that many of them see God as existing to serve them. He served them in the Exodus; he served them when he provided clean water. Now he must serve not only ...

"When God 'tests' us he does so by bringing us into situations which call for trust and the endurance and the obedience that proves our trust is real, so that by the exercise of faith in the face of new challenges, our trust in him can develop and mature until we come to see that everything that happens to us is under divine supervision and is brimful of divine purposes fo...

"Exodus 14 tells the old, old story, while Exodus 15 sings the old, old story. You walk or march in chapter 14. You dance in chapter 15. Chapter 14 focuses on what God has done, and chapter 15 focuses on your appropriate response to what God has done. There is a holy hush in chapter 14. You sing fortissimo in chapter 15. Chapter 14 highlights dry ground. In chapter 15 ther...

"Far be it from me ever to say a word in disparagement of the holy, happy, heavenly exercise of prayer. But, beloved, there are times when prayer is not enough-when prayer itself is out of seasonWhen we have prayed over a matter to a certain degree, it then becomes sinful to tarry any longer; our plain duty is to carry out desires into action, and having asked God's guidan...

"Sometimes a cloud has the primary function of concealing God. But he also appearsin the cloud. Both functions match the character of God. Human beings never master God or know him exhaustively. So the cloud is a reminder of human limits. At the same time, God does draw near and establish communion with mankind. So the cloud represents drawing near. Because ordinary clouds...

"Paul calls attention to the unstoppable, spreading, disastrous influence on the nature and identity of the whole community which is out of all proportion to what those who were self-satisfied evidently imagined could spring from a "little" case of one immoral relationship, even if one of an utterly outrageous nature. Paul feared contamination of the whole community." Anth...

"God paid special attention to his people that night, and in response his people of all future generations were expected to pay special attention to him on its anniversary." Douglas Stuart "This section ends by noting that this departure night is not a night on which the Hebrews exercise great bravado. Rather it ends by focusing on the Lord of the Hebrews." Victor Hamilto...

"Why such an emphasis on commemoration? Because what is not carefully remembered by a community is very naturally and easily forgotten-and virtually completely forgotten as soon as the oldest members of that community who experienced the original event die." Douglas Stuart "Not even the huge novelty of actually, at long last, setting foot in the Promised Land could replac...

"In a way, these instructions must be terrifying to the people of Israel. God tells his people that the angel of death is going to pass through their midst, and the only way their firstborn will be saved is if they kill a lamb and put its blood prominently on their doorposts. Do you see what God is teaching his people here? First, he wants them to understand that they them...

"God's foreknowledge told him that he would stretch out his hand only to meet mighty resistance but, plainly he was in no hurry to implement the final showdown he foresaw (3:19-20). As 2 Peter 3:9 says, 'The Lord is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance'-Pharaoh included. But eventually the Lord's patience comes to an end for he...

"With one single blow he gave them a water and food shortage, a transportation shutdown, a financial disaster, and a spiritual crisis." Phil Ryken "There was a suitableness in God's choosing the frogs to humble Egypt's kings, because frogs were worshipped by that nation as emblems of the Deity. Images of a certain frog-headed goddess were placed in the catacombs, and frog...

"Magic was a main element in the Egyptian religion at this time, and those who mastered these powers were held in high esteem. The priests, belonging to the highest officials of Pharaoh, possessed secret knowledge and were skilled in all sorts of mysterious rites. By casting spells, they could allegedly overpower humans and control gods and thereby attain dominion over the...

"Pharaoh's heart was particularly important because Egyptians believed it was the all-controlling factor in both history and societyhis heart was thought to be sovereign over creation. Therefore by hardening Pharaoh's heart, God was making a theological point. He was proving that he alone is sovereign over all things. Nothing is outside the purpose of his will, not even th...

"And the people believed, and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshipped." Exodus 4:31 "The Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us" Exodus 5:21 "If only the Lord had sh...

"From beginning to end, the entire exodus was the result of God's sovereign decree. The deliverance of Israel from Egypt is entirely God's doing and under his complete control. The impending Exodus is a play in which God is the author, producer, director, and principal actor. Even when Pharaoh took his turn on the stage, God received all the applause. Like everything else ...

"It is by far the largest and most detailed of its kind. It is also unique in its description of the intimate communication between God and Moses." G. Larsson "But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions." Genesis 15:14 "Throughout this section we have seen some of the riches embraced by the divine nam...

"He (Moses) supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand." Acts 7:25 "By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ g...

"In short, 'fearing God' is commonly in Scripture a virtual abbreviation for 'believing in God, and therefore fearing the consequence of not pleasing him, thus being a person of moral conviction and righteous actions."Douglas Stuart "Sometimes standing against evil is more important than defeating it. The greatest heroes stand because it is right to do so, not because the...

"To a modern reader such an opening might not seem consistent with high literary style. It was, however, not only good style but entirely welcome in the ancient setting, where a group of refugees of mixed ethnic origin, many of whom were young enough to be learning their national traditions for the first time, were being reminded of God's plan through a people descended fr...

"Exodus is an epic tale of fire, sand, wind and water. The adventure takes place under the hot desert sun, just beyond the shadow of the Great Pyramids. There are two mighty nations-Israel and Egypt-led by two great men-Moses the liberating hero and Pharaoh the enslaving villain. Almost every scene is a masterpiece: the baby in the basket; the burning bush; the river of bl...