Jan 29 (Exodus 20-22)

Exodus 20

Here, God gives Moses the Law...the 10 Commandments. I go through each of them with my kids:

1. "You shall have no other gods before Me." ~ God doesn't want to be #1 on a list of 10...He wants to be #1 on a list of one! He wants us to include Him in ALL PARTS OF OUR LIVES...not just certain parts.

2. "You shall not make for yourself a carved image" ~ There is no way to make a likeness to God with human hands, so don't try it. Idols are man-made, and God wants us to focus on the Creator, not His creation. Oprah Winfrey turned away from God when she read that God is a "jealous" God. Of course, what she fails to see, is that jealous doesn't mean a jealous spouse. God wants to have fellowship with us, and to let anything get in the way hurts Him.

3. "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain" ~ Many people think this commandment is alluding to cursing or cussing. Certainly, we as believers should refrain from foul language, but I believe God is talking about something bigger. As Christians, we take on the name of our Lord...Christ. If we curse, steal, gossip, etc, then we are defiling the name of God. We believers are His ambassadors...we need to represent our King properly for His glory!

4. "Remember the Sabbath day...For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth" ~ First of all, every day is our Sabbath if we're in Christ. But it is helpful and fruitful to take a day to completely devout our time for God. We can do this by reading His Word most of the day, we can spend the day with other believers, or we can pray even more that day. We just need to do this for Him, and not for ourselves. Also, notice that God documents that He did create the universe in SIX LITERAL DAYS. Many good people can disagree on the merits of the Gap Theory, but the Hebrew used here definitely refers to six actual days...not six eras.

5. "Honor your father and your mother" ~ My kids smile every time I read this to them...they always say, "we're trying Daddy!" I stress to them that we love them, and even though we'll make mistakes, they should always show us respect.

6. "You shall not MURDER" ~ Notice that the original text doesn't say "kill" because it's not unlawful to kill in war or self defense. Murder is the act of deliberately killing someone for your own sinful reasons. There is a big difference between righteous killing and murder. If your kids ask for some examples, then refer them to Abraham, Samuel, David and Joshua...God commanded these great men of faith to kill evil.

7. "Honor your spouse" ~ You'll notice I don't say the "A" word...depending upon the age of your kids, it might be appropriate just to say that God loves marriage and hates divorce. However, if one has been divorced, they aren't condemned to hell. We all make mistakes, and if that person will include God in the next marriage, then the results would be different.

8. "You shall not steal" ~ Here God puts great importance upon private property. It's not right to take what is not yours. Some good discussions can come from this one!!!

9. "You shall not lie" ~ This is a real tough one on all of us, because at our best, we sometimes "stretch the truth" in order to avoid the pain of the whole truth. I stress to my kids that it's always best to tell the truth, since sometimes it's bad enough, rather than lie and get caught in a lie later!

10. "You shall not covet" ~ Almost all of the previous commandments can be related to this one...if we don't obsess or focus on material things and focus on God, we won't fill our minds with lust, envy or greed.

So why was the Law given? It is definitely a standard we should strive to keep, but we all know that it's impossible by our sinful nature to keep the Law our whole lives. We may do pretty well for a while, but we'll slip sometime. So what do we do?

God is holy and pure. He can't abide with sin in heaven. If we are unable to keep the Law, then we are doomed to hell and eternal separation from God. However, God provided the solution...Himself. Jesus came down from heaven to live as man and be our Kinsman Redeemer...to live a perfect life and keep the Law, and ultimately pay for our sins on the cross. We couldn't pay for our sins...it had to be washed away with innocent blood from our kin...God in the flesh...thank you Jesus!!!

Exodus 21

God shows us the Jewish tradition of master and slave. We must not equate this relationship as with the Jews in Egypt or the African slaves of America. As we saw from Abraham on down, God establishes a master of the house, and all the workers are essentially under contract to work for that master for seven years. This is why Jacob agreed to work for Laban for seven years to earn Laban's daughter Rachel.

At the end of those seven years, the servant has the option of going out on his own, or if the master has treated the servant fairly, then he can stay by choice. This ceremony is done by piercing the servant's ear to the doorpost, and is a prelude to the piercing our LORD took for our freedom from slavery to sin!!!

Exodus 22

For those of us who believe in the Constitution, and the right for private property, then this chapter is ideal. God ordains property ownership, and even tells us that it's lawful to kill an intruder in your home...that's so un-PC nowadays!