Author: PGC Administrator

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Exodus 20 English Standard Version (ESV)

The Ten Commandments

¹ And God spoke all these words, saying,

² “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

³ “You shall have no other gods before me.

⁴ “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.⁵ You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶ but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

⁷ “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

¹² “Honor your father and your mother,that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

¹³ “You shall not murder.

¹⁴ “You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁵ “You shall not steal.

¹⁶ “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

¹⁷ “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

¹⁸ Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off ¹⁹ and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”²⁰ Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” ²¹ The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

 

REFLECTION

• Read this passage then slowly evaluate my life according to the Ten Commandments.
• Before God commanded anything of man, He declared who He is and what He did for Israel. It’s important to understand that grace precedes law. God first acts in grace and mercy by delivering the people, and then the people respond in gratitude and thanksgiving by the obeying the commandments. The crossing of the Red Sea comes before the giving of the Ten Commandments.
• The first four commands are for keeping our relationship with God intact: no worship of other gods, no idolatry, no abuse of God’s holy name, and no abuse of God’s holy Sabbath.
• The last six commands are for keeping our relationships in the world in which we live intact: honoring parents, honoring others’ lives, honoring marriage, honoring others’ possessions, honoring the truth, and honoring what God gives others to live with and what He gives us to live with.
• Although the commandments are, with the exception of the fifth, all prohibitive, they are not negative. They speak about love: love of God and love of others.  Jesus once was asked by a lawyer among the Pharisees: which is the greatest commandment? Jesus replied: Loving God and your neighbor (Matt 22:37-40).
• Spend some time read this passage carefully and meditatively. If you could, use one word or a term to describe each commandment and reflect on its meaning. Thank God for His love in giving us these commands.
• Ask the Holy Spirit’s help to examine your own life, where you have failed, or in which area you are facing crisis right now. Pray to confess and receive forgiveness of Jesus Christ, and ask for a renewed spirit and abundant power in living out a life of holiness and love.

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Exodus 19 English Standard Version (ESV)

⁹ And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.”

When Moses told the words of the people to the Lord, ¹⁰ the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments¹¹ and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. ¹² And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. ¹³ No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.” ¹⁴ So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people; and they washed their garments. ¹⁵ And he said to the people, “Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman.”

¹⁶ On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. ¹⁷ Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. ¹⁸ Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. ¹⁹ And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. ²⁰ The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

²¹ And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to look and many of them perish. ²² Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them.” ²³ And Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it.’”²⁴ And the Lord said to him, “Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them.” ²⁵ So Moses went down to the people and told them.

 

REFLECTION

• Read this passage, or read the whole chapter if time allows.
• God’s display of power at Mount Sinai is later described as a “consuming fire on top of the mountain” (24:17). It was intended to inspire awe and fear, and to communicate something of the holiness of Israel’s God.  Only Moses would go up into the thunder and constantly flashing lightning that shrouded the mountaintop.
• Hebrews 12:18 describes the mountain as “burning with fire…darkness, gloom, and storm.” It was so terrifying that even Moses said, “I am trembling with fear”. (Heb 12:21)
• While Christians come directly to God through a loving Christ, something important about the nature of God was communicated at Sinai. Hebrews reminds us that we are to “worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:28-29).
• God told the Israelites to do certain things in preparation to receive His commandments. These rules are to remind the people that God is holy and should not be taken lightly; it emphasizes God’s holiness and majesty (Lev 11:45).  How do you get ready for church?  How else do you draw near to God?
• When did you last truly experience the holiness of God? What impact did that have on you?

 

PRAYER

Ask God to help you realize God’s holiness, and to come to worship service, other meetings and personal devotions with reverence and humility.

 

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Exodus 18 English Standard Version (ESV)

Jethro’s Advice

¹ Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. ² Now Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her home, ³ along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom (for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land”), ⁴ and the name of the other, Eliezer (for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”). ⁵ Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped at the mountain of God. ⁶ And when he sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her,” ⁷ Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent.⁸ Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. ⁹ And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.

¹⁰ Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. ¹¹ Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.” ¹² And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.

 

REFLECTION

• Read this passage, or read the whole chapter if time allows.
• Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came to Sinai to meet Moses. When Moses told him what the Lord had done in Egypt, and how the Lord had saved Israel on their journey to Sinai, Jethro praised God and said, “Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods.”  Sitting with friends or relatives and simply telling what God has done in our lives is still the best way to share the Lord with others.
• Why not start the habit of daily journaling. Just write down what you experience during the day, God’s grace, His presence and what He’s been doing in our life.  Review them weekly.

 

PRAYER

Ask that God will help you to be thankful through the journaling and to be ready to share with others about God.

 

Read chapter in full: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Exodus+17

 

Exodus 17 English Standard Version (ESV)

Water from the Rock

¹ All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. ² Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” ³ But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” ⁴ So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” ⁵ And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. ⁶ Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. ⁷ And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Israel Defeats Amalek

⁸ Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim.⁹ So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” ¹⁰ So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. ¹¹ Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. ¹² But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. ¹³ And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword.

¹⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” ¹⁵ And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord Is My Banner, ¹⁶ saying, “A hand upon the throne of the Lord! The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”

 

REFLECTION

• Read this passage, or read the whole chapter if time allows.
• When Israel entered the territory of vicious Amalekites, there erupted a war. Joshua led the troop to fight while Moses went to the mountain top to appeal to God.  When Moses’s tired and dropped his arms, both Aaron and Hur, standing on either side of Moses, held his arms up to pray.  The Israelites were greatly encouraged to see Joshua before them in the battle field, and Moses above them on the hill.
• We also need to uphold the arms of our spiritual leaders. A word of appreciation or encouragement, a prayer on his/her behalf, a random act of kindness, these will all bring great encouragement and renewal of soul to the leaders.

 

PRAYER

Silent before God, wait for God to bring one or two spiritual leaders into heart.  Have I discerned any fatigue, disappointment, heavy burden in them?  Pray for them, think of a practical way to encourage, comfort and bless them.