Aaron Denies Responsibility

As I was reading, I was quite shocked about the denial Aaron had on the calf. I was thinking to myself, God knows everything Aaron, are you that foolish to have the audacity to lie to Moses, much less God?? And then it made me realize, there have been many times when I have lied. How foolish am I?! I definitely need to have that same reminder to myself that God IS reading my thoughts and will know my every lie, just as he knew Aaron's. Reading what Aaron did makes me feel fearful of ever telling a lie again because I know that God must be so appalled by the fact that he not only knows I am doing it, but because he also knows that IIII know that he knows I'm doing it; and yet still have to the nerve to do it!

(Hope that wasn't too confusing! ha)

Moses' Humility

I liked how Moses was humble before God about his leadership.  

Exodus 33:15-16

Then Moses said to him, "If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.  How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us?  What else will distinguish me and your people from all the people on the face of the earth?"

He could have taken pride in his strength, confidence, intelligence, past victories, but he knew things would only be great if God was with him.  He didn't trust in anything else as his reason for being great.  

I just realized this too as I'm reading; at the end of today's reading, Moses' face is radiant.  That is part of the evidence that God is with him and them.  

Wow, thank you so much for everyone's insight!! It definitely helps me get SO much more out of my daily readings. Reading all the different comments & perspectives everyone shares really helps me to contemplate & dig deeper into Gods word. I really appreciate that! Muchos gracias!

God's blueprints and designs: hmm, fascinating.

It is truly amazing how descriptive God was on how he wanted the Israelites to build the tabernacle and how to make the Priest robes for Aaron and his sons. How did the people find material to do all this? I don't know but I think that God created all of these items: gold, silver, bronze, materials in the colors of blue, purple, gold, etc. The measurements. You can actually picture the tabernacle in your own mind reading in Exodus 25-28. I can't wrap my mind around how the Israelites had the ability to build and make curtains or distinguish colors. It doesn't say who God actually chose to do all of this. It just says, "the skilled workers" but who were they? Men? Women? Perhaps both genders. What to you all think?

Elders see God's Glory???????

I was encouraged to read about the promises and blessings God give his people (although we know they don't live up to their end of the bargain) But the one thing that kind of threw me off was the part about the elders seeing God's glory Exodus 24:9-11.

• It said that the elders went up to see God, was that on Mount Sinai?
• "under his feet was pavement made of sapphire" Does that mean God walked up to them?
• "God didn't raise His hand against them" For what sin would God raise his hand against the elders?
• "they saw God, and they ate and drank" back in Exodus 20:18-20 it says that the people were afraid of God. Now they are able to see him and eat and drink with him, what changed?

I found a commentary and this is what it says, I still have questions, maybe we can discuss

"The elders saw the God of Israel; they had some glimpse of his glory, though whatever they saw, it was something of which no image or picture could be made, yet enough to satisfy them that God was with them of a truth. Nothing is described but what was under his feet. The sapphires are the pavement under his feet; let us put all the wealth of this world under our feet, and not in our hearts. Thus the believer sees in the face of Jesus Christ, far clearer discoveries of the glorious justice and holiness of God, than ever he saw under terrifying convictions; and through the Saviour, holds communion with a holy God".

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on Exodus Exodus 24:9-11

Exodus - Movement of the People

I really enjoyed the reading today.  I had lots of thoughts (maybe it was the Starbucks).  

I've seen attempts at scientific explanations for the plagues, like there was a volcano far away..., but they fall short because they happened when Moses did something (put the staff in the sea).  With the Manna today there's not really a scientific explanation for it.  I've thought maybe it was sand and it froze, but that would not taste like honey.  Also it's kind of miraculous too.  It lasts for 2 days when it's supposed to, but rots when it's only supposed to last one day.  And the one that stays before the testimony never rots.  

The people were still learning God's laws and boundaries.  Some had to disobey to learn the consequences.  They were not used to having to obey specific laws.  

I didn't realize this, but Zipporah, Moses' wife, completely missed out on all the plagues and miracles.  Can you imagine Moses saying, "Guess what honey..."

I liked in Exodus 18:9 how Jethro "was delighted to hear about all the good things."  Moses grew up without his true father, but it seems like he was kind of adopted by Jethro.  To see this older man caring and supporting Moses is encouraging.  Later Jethro gives Moses some good advice too.  

When Moses is judging all the situations with the people, how did he know God's laws?  He hasn't been up on the mountain yet.  There are a couple of mentions of him knowing other things, like laws in today's reading.  I wonder what that is about.  

Finally today, Jethro tells Moses to divide up the work.  Great advice.  I wonder if in our church we have a good division of labor.  Should we have more, capable men?  Do we depend too much on our main leader?  What effects could that have on him and us?  

Just my thoughts for today.  Thanks for all who've been posting.  

God is prevalent

I love the NT cuz the gospels allow me to hear Jesus, but in the OT it's sooooo cool to hear God... His thoughts, His reasons, His love... it's amazing :). Gosh the pillar of fire mustv been ginormous to give enough light for 600,000+ men not counting the women children and animals! And my fav scripture from today: "the Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." Sighhhhh I love God... love you all, have a GREAT week! :)

Gosh Pharoah was a brat! Sheesh :) Ya know how God had Moses ask Pharoah to let the Isrealites go to the desert to worship God, well isn't that sorta misleading cuz Pharoah seemed to think they would come back to Egypt? Why didn't God have Moses directly ask that Pharoah let His people go back to their land?

Older serving the younger...

(Sorry if this has been previously discussed, I've only read through the last 8 or so posts recently). There seems to be such a repeated theme with the scriptures and the older brother serving the younger. We saw Abel's sacrifice preferred over Cain's, Ishmael becoming less because of Isaac being the son of promise, Jacob ruling over Esau, Joseph ruling over all his brothers - and then even in today's reading - Jacob gives Ephraim the blessing of the firstborn although Mannasseh is the elder.

With all of the important factors tied to birthrights and family, it seems that God over and over again is making a point. My thought would be that it enforces humility in the elder, and as the younger learns his own inadequacies - hopefully humility in him as well. What are your thoughts?

Personally, I'm liking being the younger sibling in my family right now... ;-) Although I'm older than most of you - so I guess if the analogy fits, I should be serving all of you, right? Amen to that. Hmmm... I'm thinking "out loud" right now - but it makes a lot of sense and is definitely scripturally supported: "... the last will be first...", "he who is the least will become the greatest..." and on and on.

1 book down 65 more to go

Genesis is such a great book. Lots of lessons learned. I’m looking forward to Exodus and the ups and downs of Moses life. Here are some pix from our Chrono dinner the other night. I’d like to give special thanks to Tera, Lisa, Rebecca and Jackie for cooking and decorating. And thanks to all of you who came. Looking forward to next months breakfast.

His name..?

I wonder why when God spoke to Isreal in the vision he called out the name Jacob instead of Isreal (Gen 46:1-4)? Anyone have any thoughts, perspective?

Man of Integrity

For those of you who were at the "Chrono Dinner" tonight, this is just a repeat of what i shared then...

I was really inspired by Josephs heart... If you take a step back and look at the big picture here, you'll be reminded that at this point in time, there was no 10 commandments, no "law", no teachings of Christ... Just man and God... The commands that existed at this time were handed down from generation to generation... We have seen nations created, and we've seen nations destroyed.. We've seen people obeying God, and we've seen people living in perversion and sin... We've seen the world created, and we've seen it destroyed by the hand of God... We've seen those who had hearts to please God, and those who had hearts to please themselves...

Joseph was a prime example of a man who lived and loved to please God! He may not have been the most tactful when it came to sharing his confidence (look at how he approached his family about his dream), but at a heart level, he just wanted to please God... When Potiphar's wife came onto him, look at what his response: "How then could i do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" Joseph wasn't concerned with losing his "status" in Potiphars household, being arrested, getting her pregnant, becoming unemployed, or anything else... His main concern was that he didn't want to sin against God... How many of us base every one of our decisions in life about whether or not we will please God?

When we go onto read about everything Joseph went thru - being conspired against by his brothers, being sold into slavery, thrown into prison, and falsely accused - you never see him losing faith in God... The text doesn't go onto say "but Joseph had faith in God", however his actions speak louder than any words... God went on to use Joseph in many powerful ways because of his pure heart to please God... Joseph had integrity, not before man, but before God...

The same goes for us... God desires to do so many powerful things with our lives, but our faithlessness and sin prohibit Him from using us to our full potential... The flip side of that coin is that God can use us in a powerful way if we live solely to love him and please him... To live a righteous life; not before man so that we "appear" to be great. But before God; so that He sees our "Joseph-like" heart and allows others to see the great things His Spirit within us can accomplish. I think it's awesome to know that as we're led by the spirit, we can have a pure heart to love and please God and that God will use us for noble purposes...

Imperfect People

Sheesh, lots of character flaws in God's people. For a long time I think I only liked Jesus and Enoch; Jesus because He was perfect and Enoch because there is so little info on him that he seemed perfect too hehe. Now of course I've grown to love David and other characters because of books and stuff. But perhaps I should not read the bible as a fairy tale full of perfect people, but a story of a perfect God and His unfathomable love for His imperfect kids.

My question: How is it that some people in the OT were able to pray to God if Jesus was not around yet? Also, Lisa N. and I were wondering why Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and other people were able to "bless" people so powerfully, was the blessing sort of like a prayer too?

Treaty- talking of peace with Jacob and Laban

I noticed how these guys each justified their deceitful actions by the wrongdoing of the other person. Each man never admitted to their own wrongdoing yet saw things as they saw fit whether it was reality or not. They deceived themselves by practicing deceit with others for so long. I guess since they had both been surrounded by deceitful practices growing up that they believed that this was the best way to get ahead. Neither sought God's view of truth and righteousness because their environment did not support it. Laban never owned up to cheating Jacob out of flocks and insisted that they were his. Jacob never owned up to acting on fear and trickery. Whenever we lie to others, it seems that it necesitates that we lie to ourselves on some level in order to carry it through with conviction. It blinds us to God's view of things. So in a way, when we lie to others, we harm ourselves by closing our eyes and hearts and minds to God. No one wins.
I also found it interesting that Jacob was able to endure the hard toil for 20 years persistantly by focusing on personal achievement and by blocking out unproductive emotion to get what he wanted- true to the Curse of Adam to toil but also Man's ability to endure such toiling more obediently for selfish gain. Rachel and Leah both sought in vain for Jacob's love but both took a back seat to his personal pursuit of wealth and accomplishment. Rachel and Leah both suffered from a desire to control who Jacob loved and cherished more through relationships (childbirth) and attachment- part of Eve's curse to suffer from emotional neglect because of Adams priority to rule and conquer the world as opposed to her priority for relationship control through attachment and emotion. Powerful stuff. Nobody wins in this situation unless they turn to God's ways for personal contentment. It is also interesting that Leah finally got the point that her joy should not rest on Jacobs affections for her solely, but that she should be grateful to the gifts of sons the Lord himself had given her as a consolation. Relationships to her sons were to be her consolation. It is no surprise that Judah would be the one through whom David and Jesus would come because of the difference in attitude Leah had when she was pregnant with him as evidenced by the name she gave him and its spiritual significance. I like this commentary book.

Jacob wrestled

Thank you for all who've posted on the blog so far.  There are some great insights and I appreciate people sharing what has stirred their hearts.  The female perspective has been great because not being one myself it helps me understand how you gals think.  

Who do you think Jacob wrestled with?  Was it God, Jesus, an angel, a robber?  

I know he "wrestled with God," but was it really God or something Godly?  Could God really be beaten by a man?  Jacob changed part of his character while wrestling.  He's a deceiver and crafty in the way he gets things, but while he is wrestling I think he works and earns the blessing.  I wonder why he fights so much too.  Was he tired of taking it from Laban?  Was it to protect his wives and children?  

I think when Jacob leaves Laban it's a major point in his life.  He's established himself with his wives and kids and he's crossing over the river not just to go to a new land, but really to start a new era of his life.  He's given a new name which is symbolic of a new beginning.  

I like reading about Jacob because, just to go back a few days, he asks God to be with him on his journey.  When I read about Jacob I feel like it's the story of a young man on a journey.  When he leaves his parents, he really has very little going on for him (no home, no job, no wife.)  He works for many years and God blesses him and he becomes wealthy.  He goes from being a mama's boy (he was Rebekah's favorite while Isaac liked Esau) to wrestling with God and the father of a nation.  

Names

I just wanted to point out that names are important.  I know sometimes there are lists in the Bible that will name names that you'll never read again, but some are repeated.  Since we are in the beginning of the Bible some of the names of people will become nations and groups of people.  I wanted to say this today because we've just read about Jacob having his sons.  Each one of his sons will become one of the tribes of Israel.  So when it talks about the Danites or the Reubenites you'll know where they came from.  

My roommate Luis actually discovered that there are 2 Lamechs.  One is from Seth and other is from Cain.  One was the first to have 2 wives and the other is in the line of Noah.  

This is also something else to point out about the bible in general.  There are many people/characters in the bible.  A man may have many sons, but the bible will talk mostly about one or two.  For the most part the stories we'll be reading will be about the righteous sons.  But it doesn't mean that if someone isn't given attention in the scriptures they were righteous.  For example we just read several chapters about Abraham, but there was hardly anything about his brothers Haran and Nahor.  I think for the most part there is a line through the bible that follows God's people.  The righteous ones are connected.  I'm not sure I'm communicating this well, but I hope this makes sense.  

I find it interesting that during Leah and Rachel's marriage to Jacob, at least up until this point, both women have only one main focus: to bare children for Jacob as an attempt to "win" his love. However, I noticed that after Jacob finished his work for Laban & married Rachel, the story in my opinion, doesn't depict Jacob's attention being directed to Rachel any longer. Unlike both women, who clearly obsessed over him. If anything, I picture Jacob being more concerned about deceiving Laban to expand his flock than "securing" the love his wives had for him.

This just comes to show how God's curse for Adam & Eve obviously was being carried out.

Jacob and Laban- Deceit

Abraham's deceit certainly ran down the line in his family. What a tangled web we weave when we attempt to deceive. All prompted by selfish ambition on both parties end. I'm guessing there was also a lot of self deceit going on as to the ends justifying the means. Deceit winds up blinding the deceiver as well as those they attempt to deceive. After awhile,the person doesn't really know who they are before God and the motives of the heart are polished up and paraded as noble to the self even though God and man sees that it is nothing of the sort.
I am always looking at the motives of my heart to make sure that i am not deceiving myself as to why I do or don't do things. It keeps me humble before God and tells him that I am aware that my sinful nature is there but that it is not what I want to follow. So asking God for the truth and loving it whether it is favorable to me or not is what I do in order to show God that my heart and mind want to obey Him. Even with all conscious effort to do this, things can slip past and my actions may not bring forth the intentions of my heart or mind. Imagine how much more could slip past us if we are not deliberately monitoring our motives and hearts desires? whether they are delighting in God or in selfish wants?

Following PT's suggestion... hi I'm Tera, I invented post-its... haha jk (that's from an old movie).

Today's reading: I thought it was cool to read that Abraham's servant relied a lot on prayer and Isaac too (if his meditation involved prayer); it probably isn't too far fetched to assume that Abraham's faith in God impacted the 2 men that were closest to him :)

Adam and Eve - The Fall

Hey guys. I posted this on the NYC facebook discussion board awhile back and have only now just had a chance to copy and paste it here. Just pretend you're on day 1-3.

I have been studying out the bible on the role of men and women and how each gender reflects the image of God differently. Recently I have been reading and studying out the curse resulting from Adam and Eve's sin & its resulting effect the genders for all ages to come. The punishment God cleverly chose for their individual sins are specifically different and relates to the root cause of Adam and Eve's core sin of their hearts. Adam's sin was lack of Love for Eve and Eve's sin was lack of respect for Adam's role as the leader. Sound like a familiar struggle to any of you. Eve would now desire to control her husband as sin desired to have Cain. God used the same word desire in both instances. She and all women would always want to have ungodly control over the relationship. Adam would rule over Eve in an ungodly and dominant way and woud resist her. His rule would now be contentious. God's original plan was for both to be equal in value but that Adam would bear the role of leadership and overall higher responsibility for Eve. Originally, both would work together and Eve would be his Helper -translated a Strong Warrior Helper and also the same word used for God himself when he said he was Israel's helper. Adam was supposed to lead with love and respect but would now rule and man would dominate and sin against woman in a way never intended.But... the curse laid upon each gender already had the elixir solution in God's plan of salvation with Jesus' blood as prophecied by God Himself when cursing the snake. In order for each gender to overcome their curse, they would have to look to God to learn how to master their core sin and be restored to a mature understanding of right and wrong through repentence.There are several books i have been reading: Wild at Heart, Captivating, The New Eve, Love and Respect. all great eye openers to the opposite gender and God's design. Has anyone else read the last two books? lemmie know. I plan to start book discussion club on biblical Gender Topics. Im gonna call it Gender Role Specifics 101. heehee