Lord, I stand amazed in Your presence! Truly Your Word is living and active. You show me new things even when I’ve read it before and even in parts that seem to be dry! Praising You!
Chapter 17 - The people needed water. They needed water to live. Moses striking the rock and water flowing from it is a picture of Christ’s death providing the Living Water we need.
Vs. 9-15 - beautiful picture of how we support one another in the battle - Aaron and Hur holding up Moses’s arms so Joshua could gain victory over the Amalekites. Beautiful picture.
Chapter 18 - every man should declare this principle to his sons in law - listen to the father of your wife! :) Seriously, it is a great example of how churches can be organized to systematically take care of the needs of their people.
Chapter 19 - the giving of the Law. Contrast this, where the people were not allowed to touch or even come near the mountain to meet God, with Matthew 5:1, where Jesus allowed the people to come TO Him ON the mountain and receive the fulfillment of The Law!
Chapter 20 and following. Some of this is just hard to understand. Especially chapter 21 on slavery. I get a little insight that these Hebrew slaves were people who had to sell themselves into slavery in order to pay their personal debts (see Leviticus for more discussion on this). And that this was not to be permanent forced servitude but rather a plan is set forth for freedom or volitional service. This is not about kidnapping people and enslaving them for generations. But still. Hard stuff.
Chapter 23. v. 3 - VERY interesting - You shall not be partial to a poor man in his dispute. In other words, justice and truth shall reign, not feelings of what is “fair” because of circumstances. So this teaches us that partiality towards the underdog is just as wrong as that against the underdog.
Chapters 26-30 - God is so precise! Did you catch all the exact measurements and instructions here? God devotes an unbelievable amount of time in Scripture spelling out the details of the Tabernacle. God is THE great communicator! He is helping us to “get the picture” of what the Tabernacle is pointing to. What are YOUR thoughts on this?