Bible in a Year – Day 26: Is God OCD?
Jan 26th
Today’s Reading: Exodus 25, 26 & 27
Well, the good news is that if you ever wanted to build a tabernacle, you now have very detailed instructions! As you read through these chapters, if you’re like me, you said, “OK, OK, I get it. Enough with the details.” Alright, maybe that’s just me. I don’t love details in the first place and I really don’t like to read about them. But there were a couple of things that I realized as I began to ask God to reveal something about himself through these passages of scripture.
First, God cares about the details…and he’s thought them all through. Imagine if God had just told Moses to build a tabernacle and had given him no instruction on how it was to be constructed. I would think that Moses would have probably done a pretty decent job of hiring the right people and seeking wise counsel, etc. But it would have been a nerve-racking job. I can see Moses staying up late at night fretting over every single detail, just hoping that the decision he made about what material to use on the leaf of the lampstand was up to God’s standard. I can see the elders of the tribe arguing over whether to use blue or purple cloth for the curtain. The fact of the matter is that through these tedious details recorded in Exodus, God made Moses’ life, and the life of those charged with building the tabernacle, a whole lot easier. They had, essentially, a blueprint from the master architect and instructions from the master carpenter. All they had to do was follow the instructions.
The second realization that I had while reading this text is that, once again, God is helping the people of Israel start from scratch. Now, we know that they made bricks in Egypt and may have learned some of the famed carpentry skills of their captors, but God was calling these people to build a nation. They would need to learn everything that anyone needs to build a nation. And so, God begins to teach them about the proper way to build this building – a temporary structure that would need to be easily dismantled, but strong enough to weather the harsh, dry, windy climate of the desert.
It occurs to me that someone out there reading this post might feel like God has called them to start from scratch. Like the Israelites coming out of Egypt and like their father Abraham before them, you might be asked to head of off to a strange land and leave everything you know behind. That’s a scary proposition, but here’s the good news: If God has called you to start from scratch, he is going to give you the plans that you need to do his work. Oh, and he definitely cares enough to give you the details!
Bible in a Year – Day 25: Rulez!
Jan 25th
Today’s Reading: Exodus 22, 23 & 24
Rules, rules and more rules! There are rules about cows, oxen and sheep, rules about wives, rules about money, rules about thieves and about a hundred other rules contained in just a couple of chapters. (Fear not, there are many more rules to come!) So what’s with all these rules? Was God just trying to make life as complex as possible for his “chosen people?”
Well, we have to remember that for these people, everything was being started from scratch. In fact, they didn’t even have a place to call home. They were just traveling through the desert, surviving on very little food and wondering why in the world they had left their former life in Egypt. And, just like every society that has ever started from scratch, the Israelites needed a framework for their civilization.
Think of it this way: Imagine the early days of the United States of America. There were groups of people who had come here from all over Europe, all with different ideas of exactly what this new world and new life would mean for them. Now, imagine if in those early days, just as the nation was being birthed, no one had thought of drafting a constitution. Imagine that some free-spirited leaders decided that every person would just do what they thought was right, rather than having a bunch of rules written down. What kind of chaos would have ensued?
Not only would the people have had no way of knowing what was or wasn’t acceptable, but there would be no way to have a court system that worked – no way to have any consistency or fairness in judgement. In short, a nation without a constitution is a nation without governing power and, in essence, is no nation at all.
And so it was with ancient Israel. This was, after all, not even a nation yet. They were really just a gigantic family – the family of Israel. They were just beginning to be birthed into a nation and the formation of a type of constitution or series of laws was necessary for them to continue to function properly. And so, much like our constitution, the people of Israel were given a series of laws and, in some cases, the punishment that was to be exacted upon someone who broke one of those laws.
Now, there are some sticking points in these laws for us modern readers. Some of the instructions about wives and slaves seem archaic to us. And, in fact, they are. Some have questioned how God could condone slavery or the seeming use and abuse of women. The truth is, we simply don’t have all of the story here. Depending on which biblical scholars you choose to listen to, there are a few possible explanations for the inclusion of these types of laws.
First, it could have been that God simply desired for humanity to function differently back then. He certainly had that right, since he created us. For those who ascribe to the idea that the Bible is the inerrant (or, without error) word of God, this is really the only option available in regards to your thinking about why God included these laws. The Bible tells us that God doesn’t change. However, it is possible that the way that he related to people and the way he wanted us to relate to each other has changed over the centuries to better suit his plans.
A second option – one available only to those who don’t believe that the Bible is inerrant – is that these were not laws spoken from God, but were, rather, laws created by Moses and perhaps some of his close advisers. The thinking goes that since God gave Moses the Ten Commandments – the basic tenants upon which laws should be built – that God also gave him the authority to establish the details of how those laws were constructed and implemented. Moses, then, in order to have some level of consistency among his newly-appointed judges, would have needed to think through specific scenarios and had specific responses available to all who were judging cases. And so, Moses, armed with the Ten Commandments from God, would have set out to create laws that related to the specific situations he saw around him – situations that took into account the cultural norms of the day and which, from Moses’ perspective, were perfectly normal and didn’t call for any major changes. Slavery had become a cultural norm in those days and Moses would have had no reason to assume that people would no longer own slaves.
A third option, of course, is that God did, indeed speak all of these rules into existence, but that somewhere along the way, some things got added in, mistranslated or otherwise misunderstood. The Bible was, after all, oral tradition before it was ever written down. Again, this option is only available to you if you don’t believe that the Bible is inerrant.
There are probably countless other theories regarding why God seems to take a nonchalant attitude toward slaves and women here and elsewhere in scripture, but I think the primary thing to note is that when these passages are read in the historical context in which they were written, the issues of slavery or the treatment of women would not have raised any red flags among the people.
And perhaps that’s the point. You can only change so many things at once, after all. Maybe God decided to get people moving a few steps in the right direction and trusting him before he began completely turning their cultural paradigm upside down.
Bible in a Year – Day 24: The Ten
Jan 24th
Today’s Reading: Exodus 19, 20 & 21
Here it is…the beginning of “The Law” that the people of Israel would follow from the days of Moses until the end of the world. Even people who are completely unfamiliar with church or the Bible know about the Ten Commandments. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they know what the commandments are – only that they exist and maybe a vague idea of what a few of them say. It’s probably a good idea then to take a glance at what in the world these commandments are about.
A not-so-quick synopsis of the commandments goes like this:
No other Gods – In a culture that was traditionally polytheistic, or at least open to the idea that there could be many gods, this was an important statement. For those of us today who live in a traditionally monotheistic culture, we tend to interpret our “gods” as anything that we make equal to or more important than God in our lives.
No idols – Again, this is a commandment that spoke directly to the common practices of the day, where people, having chosen their god or gods, would cast some kind of image out of gold or another material as not only a representation or symbol of their god, but as a god. My friend Vijay, who grew up in a culture where these kinds of statues are still commonly used, relates how, even after he became a follower of Jesus, it was difficult for him to remember that those statues weren’t god (or God) and weren’t in any way sacred. And so, it was important for God to literally write in stone that the people of Israel should not craft these kinds of idols (to him or any other god).
Do not misuse God’s name – this is a situation where the NIV (New International Version) translation of the Bible is very useful. Many of us have heard the commandment translated “Do not take God’s name in vain,” which is actually a somewhat paraphrased version of the old King James translation. The problem is that it doesn’t make much sense to us. Here, the NIV allows us to understand that we’re talking about misuse of God’s name – misappropriation, if you will. With that interpretation, I think it could be argued that there are plenty of us, myself included, that sometimes misuse the name of God (or, in our post-Christ era, misuse the name of Jesus). History is littered with victims of those who committed despicable acts in the name of God. God recognized the power and authority in his name and warned his people against the abuse of that power and authority.
Remember the Sabbath – The Sabbath day was and still is one of the most misunderstood of God’s commands to the people of Israel. This was God’s version of the classic parental exhortation that “I’m doing this for your own good.” If we take a couple of steps back and gain a new perspective, we’ll see that God institution of required rest among his people was simply a matter of appropriate management of people resources. If you don’t rest, you’ll get tired. If you get tired, you’ll lag behind, won’t be fit for battle and you’ll bring others down. Now, God was pretty harsh about what would happen to those who broke the Sabbath, but the principle spoken of here still exists today as we busy ourselves to the point of exhaustion and burnout rather than heeding God’s words to take some time to rest.
Honor your father and mother, don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie – These are all fairly self-explanatory and all point back to the same idea: don’t think so highly of yourself that you disrespect or harm someone else. These are the “love your neighbor as yourself” portions of the law
Don’t covet – The final commandment also falls under the “love your neighbor” heading, but I want to separate it out here for this reason: Because covetousness speaks to an inward condition of the heart, rather than a visible action. You see, dishonoring your parents, killing someone, having an affair, stealing or lying – they are all outward expressions. They are actions. Covetousness, however, is something that lives inside of a person and festers. This one word, “covet,” contains within it ideas like jealousy, selfishness, greed and envy – the kind of conditions that will eat away at a person’s soul and that could ultimately drive them to one of the horrendous acts mentioned above. This final commandment is perhaps more important than many of those preceding it, but most people don’t give it much thought.
In short, the Ten Commandments were a quick version of God’s rules to live by. The longer version would be played out in the coming chapters of Exodus, as well as in other parts of scripture. At the end of today’s reading, we begin to catch a glimpse of the “longform” rulebook that the people of Israel would use as part of their religious and legal system. We will explore that a little further tomorrow.
Bible in a Year – Day 23: Put Your Hands in the Air
Jan 23rd
Today’s Reading: Exodus 16, 17 & 18
Leadership is hard. You’ve likely discovered this truth if you’ve ever been in any kind of leadership position at all. Whether you are the CEO of an international organization or quarterback of a backyard football game, you know that it’s lonely at the top. Managing people – their expectations, their workflow and assignments and, of course, their conflict – can zap the life out of even the most seasoned leader.
In today’s reading, we see two examples of the same principle. The first is somewhat of a symbolic example. As Joshua goes out to battle the Amalekites, Moses goes up to the top of the hill, presumably expecting that God will use him in some way up there. And he’s right! As long as Moses holds his hands up, the Israelites are winning the battle. When he drops his hands, they begin to lose. While this may be an unusual example, it effectively illustrates a point about leadership. When the person charged with leading a group of people is “at the helm” and “on the job,” the organization (or army or nation) is going to succeed. But when the person is aloof, lazy or absent, then all kinds of chaos will descend upon the group.
What, then, is a leader supposed to do? In Moses’ case, he simply got too tired to hold his arms up. He burnt out on the task. Fortunately, he had a couple of others – a close friend, Hur, and his brother, Aaron – there to give him a hand. These two men stepped into a support role in Moses’ hour of need. They provided him a place to sit down when his legs got tired and held up his arms when his own strength failed him. And while this event obviously made an impact on the armies of the Israelites and Amalekites, it perhaps made even more of an impact on Moses. In that moment, he was forced to realize that he needed other people – that he couldn’t do it by himself.
Moses’ need for the other men to support him on that hill, then, was symbolic of his need to have others surrounding and supporting him in his main areas of leadership. After all, Moses was leading (depending on which biblical scholar you listen to) at least 20,000 people and maybe as many as 2 million people at this time. I know there’s a huge difference between those numbers, which can be attributed to arguments over translation accuracy and literal interpretation issues, but the point is that Moses – just one guy – was trying to lead all these people. Whether is was 2 million or 20,000, the job was too big for one person.
And so, after Moses kind of gets the point in the midst of the battle with the Amalekites, his father-in-law Jethro shows up to clarify things. Jethro’s observation may seem like common sense to us today, but to Moses and the people of Israel, it would forever alter the leadership structure of their nation. And, in fact, though it makes sense to delegate some tasks and responsibilities to others, so many of us fall into the same trap as Moses. We try to do it all.
Thousands of years later, Jethro’s words are as applicable today as they were for Moses:
“What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out.”
Bible in a Year – Day 22: In God We Trust
Jan 22nd
Today’s Reading: Exodus 13, 14 & 15
One verse jumped out to me today. It’s one that I must have glossed over before:
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.” (Exodus 14:15)
Whoa, God! Seems sort of blunt. I mean, how could he expect the Israelites to know to just keep going? How were they supposed to know he was going to part the sea? Here are people who have just come out of slavery and are heading off to the middle of nowhere without any real plan in place. Pharaoh and his army are pursuing them and they are understandably freaked out! So, how in the world are they supposed to know the details of God’s plan to rescue them?
They’re not. It’s that simple. God doesn’t expect them to know the details of his plan – only to trust that he has one. God’s instruction to Moses to “Tell the Israelites to move on” is not as much a statement of expectation as it is a reassurance of a promise. God told Moses that he was going to deliver the people of Israel from the Egyptians. That was the promise God made and he wasn’t about to break it. And so, God is attempting to remind Moses of that promise and to encourage him to do what he was asked to do. Then, God fills Moses in on some of the details.
For Moses, the reluctant leader, this might have been a difficult assignment. However, throughout history (both before and after Moses) this has been a pretty common M.O. for God. Remember God’s instruction to Abram? He told him to pack up his stuff and go to the land he would be shown and that his people would inhabit that land. It was a promise without a detailed plan. To step out in obedience required faith that God had a plan and that he cares more for his people than his people care about themselves.
Have we really changed all that much since the days of Moses or Abram? God certainly hasn’t! Very often, God will speak to someone about the future – he’ll make a promise about some eventual reality – without giving the full plan. And I think, very often, the reason that he doesn’t give us that plan is that if we knew all the steps required to get from point A to point B, we might not be so eager to go! On the other hand, if we can learn to simply trust in God and in his ability to navigate us from where we are to where we’re going, then it becomes a little easier to make that first step.
That’s what God encourages Moses and the Israelites to do here. I can only imagine what the Israelites must have been feeling as the Egyptian army was bearing down on them. The Red Sea must have seemed insurmountable! And yet, with God, all things are possible – for the ancient Israelites and for us today.
