Category: Exodus

Exodus 1:19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”

I have always been a rule follower. I have always had faith that rules exist for a reason, even if I don’t fully understand the why. I have always tried to trust the rule makers, those in charge–that they have everyone’s best interest at heart, that the rules are important, necessary, for the whole to run smoothly.

Exodus 1:20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 

I have always been a rule follower, so this line of commentary gave me pause: [God] “won His victory through some courageous individuals who were willing to stand up to the power of Pharaoh and do what was right.” They did not follow the rules. They followed their hearts, God’s heart.

Exodus 1:21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

Precious Savior, Sometimes those making the rules do not have the good of all in their hearts. Sometimes they do not love You and love others. Instead, they love themselves, power, money, fame, etc, etc. I love You, Lord. I want to love like You love, fiercely, deeply, completely. Help me, always, to do what’s right in Your eyes and not the eyes of the world. Help me to love You and love others, always. Amen.

Exodus 1:22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

Have a blessed day.

Exodus 1:8 Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. 

Joseph ended up in Egypt because of his brothers’ treachery, but Egypt was exactly where the Israelites needed to be in order to grow into a powerful nation. If they had stayed in Canaan, they would have intermarried, and their faith would have been diluted.

Exodus 1:9-10 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”

For centuries, that worked well for all involved, but now there is a new Pharaoh, one who has no knowledge of Joseph, one who is concerned about the number of Israelites in Egypt. However, even with oppression and forced labor, the Israelites continue to grow as a nation.

Exodus 1:11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 

Lord of the searching, Thank You that there are sources of commentary to help me understand what I read, to help me think about what I believe to be true. Thank You for this example in Exodus of growth, even when times are tough. Help me, with every word, to draw closer to You, to understand You a little better, to love and trust You even more. Help me, Jesus. Amen.

Exodus 1:12-13 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly.

Have a blessed day.

Exodus 32:32 But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”

Commentary points out that Moses offers himself as a sacrifice, which is exactly what Jesus does in the New Testament. I overlooked that fact. What I did notice was that Moses, who was livid with Aaron and the Israelites, asked for forgiveness for the people of Israel, “but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”  Why?

Exodus 32:33 The Lord replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. 

Does he ask to be blotted out if they aren’t forgiven because he is their earthly leader? Because he has spiritual responsibility for them? He was livid about their behavior. He was livid with Aaron. But unlike Aaron, he doesn’t shrug his shoulders and claim ignorance at how they ended up in this mess. What’s going on?

Exodus 32:34 Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”

Precious Savior, Thank You for this journey through Exodus,  for the questions I’ve asked, for the wisdom I have gained. Thank You for drawing me closer to You, even when I don’t understand. Help me have eyes to see You and ears to hear You and always seek to draw closer to You. Amen.

Exodus 32:35 And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made. 

Have a blessed day.

Exodus 32:28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. 

When I read passages like Exodus 27, I am reminded of how incredibly fortunate I am to have Jesus as an intercessor. The Israelites didn’t have that path to God. There was often death destruction (think the flood of Noah’s time) as a path to atone and begin again.

Exodus 32:29 Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”

And the reality is, humans make so many mistakes. We mess up. We think we know better. We try to do better. Yet we are so human, so fleshly, so fallible. I am so thankful that destruction is no longer God’s go-to option for dealing with our mess.

Exodus 32:30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”

Precious Savior, Thank You for Your sacrifice for us. Thank You that because of You, we no longer have to face death and destruction when we inevitably mess up. Draw us closer to You with every breath. Amen.

Exodus 32:31 So Moses went back to the Lord and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. 

Have a blessed day.

Exodus 32:25 Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. 

What bothers me about verse 25 is the phrase “so became a laughingstock to their enemies.” I’m pretty sure God isn’t about appearances. He doesn’t care what others think. I feel like verse 25 contains Moses’s interpretation–become a laughingstock–and not God’s.

Exodus 32:26 So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him.

We do know that Moses is concerned with appearances. Back in verse 12 he argued for God not destroying the rebellious Israelites so that the Egyptians wouldn’t think God had led them out of captivity just to destroy them. (In hindsight, that argument seems incredibly ironic now.)

Exodus 32:27a Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side…. 

Precious Savior, I struggle with today’s scripture, the appearance of caring what others think, the violent killing of those who rebelled. I feel like there should be another way. But Your thoughts are not my thoughts and Your ways are beyond anything I can imagine. Thank You for Jesus, so that there is a better way to You. Amen.

Exodus 32:27b …Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’ ”

Have a blessed day.

Exodus 32:21 He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”

Way back in Exodus 4, God was trying to convince Moses of His plan, but Moses, respectfully, kept saying, “Please send someone else.” In the end, Aaron became Moses’s emotional support human for God’s mission. Every time I get to Exodus 32 and see the mess that Aaron helped create, I think, “You know, Moses, if you had just done what God asked originally, you wouldn’t be in this mess. Aaron is here because of you.”

Exodus 32:22 “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil.

Of course, blame doesn’t get us anywhere. Aaron’s deflection (“Moses, you know how sinful these people are. Oh, and all I did was throw gold in the fire and “poof.” No clue how the idol got here.”) didn’t help the situation at all, either. Now we have a livid Moses, a sniveling Aaron, an angry God, and sinful, rebellious Israelites.

Exodus 32:23 They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ 

Lord, Sometimes we just make a mess of things, just all the way around. Help us, when we find ourselves in that situation, to deal with the issues, to own up to our missteps, to make amends if possible. Help us to keep You at our center. Draw us closer. Amen.

Exodus 32:24 So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”

Have a blessed day.

Exodus 32:17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is the sound of war in the camp.”

Commentary says that Moses’s anger was righteous and that his breaking the tablets written by the hand of God was fitting since the Israelites broke the covenant of God with their behavior, but I can’t help but see Moses’s reaction as a bit of a toddler’s temper tantrum, where he let his anger control him and he broke what was handy (the literal word of God) to express his anger.

Exodus 32:18 Moses replied: “It is not the sound of victory, it is not the sound of defeat; it is the sound of singing that I hear.”

And I wonder if such grandiose displays (breaking the tablets, burning the idol, then grounding it to powder, then making the Israelites drink it) were even necessary. The Israelites seem to know their actions aren’t ok. No one stops Moses in his tirade. No one tries to claim innocence. They made the idol to fill a really scary void that Moses left. Now he’s back.

Exodus 32:19 When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. 

Precious Savior, Moses was livid. I get that. The Israelites were afraid and at loose ends. I also get that. But it seems like both acted inappropriately in the situation and it seems like their anger and their fear led them into even more trouble. I can be shackled by anger and fear as well, Lord. It can make me do crazy things, too. Help me to cling to You always, Lord. Always. Amen.

Exodus 32:20 And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.

Have a blessed day.

Exodus 32:13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’ ” 

What I find interesting here is that in exactly three verses, Moses is the one who will be vibrating with rage. This after he just spent two verses convincing God to not destroy the Israelites for their disobedience.

Exodus 32:14 Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

My question is: Why does Moses react as he does? Does he not believe God that the Israelites are rebelling? Does he not fully grasp the depth of their rebellion? Is he so caught up in what he needs to do–get these tablets to the Israelites for guidance–that he doesn’t fully understand what he’s about to step into?

Exodus 32:15 Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. 

Precious Savior, I am guilty of getting caught up in what I need to do, of being focused on my goals, my objectives, my needs to the point that I lose sight of the bigger picture, Your picture. Forgive me. Help me use my enthusiasm for You glory alone. Amen.

Exodus 32:16 The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

Have a blessed day.