January 29, 2010, Exodus 23 & 24, Psalm 14, Acts 5

January 29, 2010, Exodus 23 & 24, Psalm 14, Acts 5

Third time I have done this…. Lost it … and must start over again.

Title: When it is wrong, it is wrong…. No matter how the masses think.
S: Ex 23:2 “Do not follow the crowd in wrong doing.”
O: Popular opinion changes. Since I was a girl much of what was illegal and thought wrong has changed both in law and in popular acceptance. Homosexuality, abortion and drugs were illegal when I was young and now all are legal … well personal use marijuana is legal. So are they right or wrong since the laws and popular opinion has changed…. I think that if I carefully read this book I can know what is right and wrong.
P: Discernment.

Title: The poor should receive justice.
S: Ex 23:6 “Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.”
O: Justice means that the poor will receive the same legal assistance as anyone else and then receive just judgments. It means that we will not let the poor off just because they are poor but also that their defense will excellent. Does legal aid or the pro bono cases of law companies give such a defense to the poor? I doubt it.
P: Justice.

Title: Be good to foreigners in your land.
S: Ex 23:9 “Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens…”
O: It is hard to figure this book out. At the end of this same chapter it says that when you come to a land that is to be conquered to drive out the people that live there and not let them live in your land. Which is it good to the alien or not? The only difference I can see is that it is different when you are in charge of a country and take in people and when you enter a country to take it over….. a conquered people are resentful and may rise again if they become strong. So being good to the aliens that come into our country is wise but allowing such goodness to a conquered nation after war is not. I think our county is good to aliens but I have never been one so how would I know. I read a book once about a person that was white and colored his skin black and then traveled the Southern States…. The experience was different than he expected. That is what I think about aliens in our land… I probably have no idea of the problems they experience.
P: To think of those who come to our land in the same way as God does ….. deserving of all of His goodness and grace.


Title: Do not work on the Sabbath.
S: Ex 23:12 “Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed.”
O: How important is the Sabbath to our family. Well as a holy day…. Not important enough…. Our business is a 24/7 service and so our workers must often work on the Sabbath and so do we. Often if it is a family gathering I seem to have to stay home and cook if I am not organized enough to get it all ready on the Saturday. Do we give up our business? Do I give up family dinners on Sunday or do I just get more organized. Getting more organized and doing everything Saturday is something that can be done with planning but giving up the business that has fed us for over 35 years is what we know so not sure on that one. How important is God to me… very…. But I am a wife and do not control the family business…. So will have to pray on this.
P: A holy Sabbath for all of the family.

Title: Angels help us out.
S: Ex 23:20 “So I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.”
O: Is this verse just for the Israelites in the desert or do we have an angel going before us……I often wonder this …. If we are getting extra help down here from angelic powers….. I choose to think we are and will read my Bible that way as it really makes me feel good.

Title: How to take over a country.
S: Ex 23:30 “Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.”
O: War is not the most efficient way of taking over a country…. Population expansion is… even God says so. If the Jews or the Arabs want to take possession of certain territories the plan should be to inhabit as much land as possible and then have many children. Birth control has a way of diminishing particular races and may completely change the demographics of nations including the U.S. and Canada.
A: There really isn’t any – Christians are not born through physical birth but through spiritual birth and come in every race, color and creed. We can go and live in nations that have low Christian populations and by being salt and light have an effect but perhaps North America is becoming more secular than countries that we presently send missionaries to so it is difficult to know where the most needy mission field is right now.
P: Not sure.

S: Ex 23:33 “Do not let them live in your land (the alien) , or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.”
O: So what happened to Ex 23:9 and “do not oppress an alien” is there not an inconsistency here or is there a difference in when you take over a land and when there is a minority already within your land. I think the teaching here is to treat the alien who is a minority in your land well however if you are taking over a country the recommendation is to drive out the alien since these people who are beaten will be an unfriendly foe within your borders if they are a conquered people. I think that eliminating the alien within a conquered country does not seem moral. This sounds like genocide --- but here it is as God’s advice here. It actually does not say kill them all it just says do not let them live in your land….. or I assume to push them out of their land. I guess that is how war works.
A: We judge nations that do this … it seems wrong.. Darfur etc., peaceful co-existence certainly seems more humane.
P:


S: Ex 24: 9 “Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.”
O: I really do not get this…. Ex 24:2 says “but Moses alone is to approach the Lord; the others must not come near.” …… and then by the end of the verse it says that 74 people including Moses went up and saw God and nothing happened to them…… this seems odd to me. Perhaps they were keeping their distance and saw God but it was not that close and so was not the kind of face to face experience that God did not permit. He does say to Moses come up to me on the mountain … so the 74 of them must have been quite a distance away and this was permissible….. the “worship at a distance” part of the verse.

S: Ex: 24: 15 “When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and he is in the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. “
O: So Moses is in a cloud, and God is in a cloud and so the experience is a e clouded image… not a clear one. Moses is a very old man at this time and he must not have eaten anything for the 40 days so it is a vague image while he is a physically deprived state… a situation conducive to some type of altered state of experience ….. but he came back with the ten
commandments on tablets and this has been the basis of all law and religion since that time so a very productive experience.
A: Moses got away with God on a mountain top and great things happened. Perhaps we are so busy with doing good things that we seldom get on a mountain top with God for 40 days and therefore little of great spiritual value is accomplished. Perhaps more would be accomplished for the kingdom if we stopped flapping our wings and just spent more time alone with God.
P: More time alone with God.

Psalm 14

S: Psalm 14:1 “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God”
O: Whenever it is discouraging when talking with those who really contend that there is no God… it is good to remember that God calls them fools…. That is what God thinks of those who deny His existence.
A: Have courage in the face of dissent.
P: Lord please give me courage when others are antagonistic against you.

Acts 5
S: Acts 5:4 “You have not lied to men but to God.”
O: This is the story of Ananias and Sapphira who sold a piece of land and want the praise of others and so they agree to lie and say that they are giving all the money that they have received for the land to God. And both of them, after lying about the amount that the received when handing it over to Peter, drop dead. The problem is that what they want is the approval of others for their good deeds. They could have said this is part of the money but they agreed to lie and it was this lying to God and this desire to have the approval of others regarding their Christian work that is their sin. How God must abhor our desire to have the approval of others for our Christian deeds…. It is a hanging offence so to speak. How important to keep our deeds secret.
A: Here is where I have a problem. Often if you give money to the church, if it is a good sum, someone finds out about it. I think that only the treasurer of a church should ever know who gives what. We are suppose to give to our local church but if you do it is always found out about (this has been my experience anyway) and so I have a hard time giving to the church that I attend as I am concerned that someone might find out and then we will have this regard that is not acceptable.
P: The ability to give and not be found out.

S: Acts 5:15 “people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that alt least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.”
O: Why would Peter’s shadow have any healing powers? He is a man although spiritually endowed with the gift of healing however I can not see how his shadow should have any extraordinary powers. This seems contrary to how God works. It should be through God’s power and not Peter’s power that healing occurs. Do not understand this verse.
A: The Catholic church looks at Peter differently then the protestant church does. Should we regard Peter differently than we do? I do not think so. Perhaps the people who were trying to get Peter’s shadow to fall on them were wrong. All pastors including Peter as far as I understand are only the messenger of God’s power and message and are not to be regarded greatly but for their ability to channel God’s power.
P: Lord help me to be enamored more with you than with your messengers.

S: Acts 5:21 “At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people.”
O: I have such trouble getting to daytime activities at the church and I often think that it would be great to go to church early in the morning as I find it such a good habit to go to the gym early. My daughter goes to a Korean church and she has just learned that they have 4:00 a.m. church every day – wow – I wonder how that would change the world… Arabs pray at 5:00 a.m. everyday…. Think this would be hard to do and I do not believe in legalism of having to do some difficult feat for the sake of it however do think that would love to do that early morning time with God.
A: Get to bed early so I can get up early.
P: Lord help me just for today to get to bed early and help me to get up early tomorrow to spend time with you.

S: Acts 5:42 “Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.”
O: Day after day they are teaching and preaching Jesus – what an example to imitate.
A: Share more.
P: Help bring about opportunities to share you with others.