Author: Pastor Doug

Our scripture this morning is Leviticus 19:18 (NET).

You must not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the children of your people, but you must love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

Jesus tells us in John 13:34 “I give you a new commandment – to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” While Jesus is always sincere in His teaching, it is a little ironic that He says a “new” commandment. God told His children this during their desert experience. Knowing scripture as many of His followers did, this statement would resonate with them as to how poorly we have done following this instruction. Jesus says it might as well be a new commandment! We must ask forgiveness for our lack of love and pray for strength to love everyone better.

Gracious God, in Your mercy You sent Your Son to save us. Help us to love one another as You first loved us. Amen.

Our scripture today is Leviticus 8:12 (NET).

He then poured some of the anointing oil on the head of Aaron and anointed him to consecrate him. 

Do you have a favorite book of the Bible? I‘ve heard people say Psalms, Acts, the Gospels – obviously they are all meant to show us God’s love. However, I have never had someone tell me their favorite is Leviticus. (If it is yours, my apologies!) Like everything in the Bible, we can see lessons about our nature, our issues and our relationships in Leviticus. The book takes its name from Levi, the tribe of Israel chosen for priestly service. Aaron was the first High Priest of Israel, and it is his anointing we read about in today’s verse. Leviticus is hard for modern readers. It deals with the rules and instructions for the priests as they perform the required sacrifices for the people. It deals with very fundamental laws for living together – remember that the Israelites were a community unto themselves the forty years they wandered in the desert. It is filled with very specific instructions that the people dealt with in everyday life, not just Sunday service! We need to see God loving His people so much He told them what He wanted in minute detail.

Heavenly Father, as You led Your people through the desert You taught us how to live together with You and each other. Help us to see that details matter, that everything You have taught us is for a reason and everything You created has a purpose. Amen.

Our scripture today is Exodus 40:34 (NET).

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

The Israelites had difficulties on the way to the Promised Land. They complained about conditions, food, leadership – sadly human behavior. They sinned badly while Moses was on the mountain with God. Through it all God was with them. He forgave them and gave specific instructions for the construction of a portable place where they could meet with Him. In this verse He sends His presence to fill the tabernacle. Later Jesus came as Immanuel, God with us. When He returned to the Father He promised us “another comforter” (John 14:16), the Holy Spirit. God is always there for us!

Wise and wonderful God, thank You for being a part of everything we do. Bless us to go in Your name to share the Gospel everywhere. Amen.

Our scripture this morning is Exodus 24:7 (NET).

He took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people, and they said, “We are willing to do and obey all that the Lord has spoken.”

If you look up “covenant” in a dictionary, you’ll find definitions like promise, treaty, and solemn agreement. All of these fit the gift God is giving His people, a chance to be connected to Him by faith, but also through His spoken promise, recorded by Moses. I have heard this called our surrender treaty. While surrendering ourselves to Him is necessary, this reads more like a partnership than one party claiming victory over another. God has gone from working through individuals to families, and now to a nation. His promise to Abraham is being fulfilled. Later, God will use His people to reach the world, as Jesus tells us in Acts 1. The New Covenant in His blood only holds us tighter in God’s love.

Gracious God, help us to reach out to others with Your love, remembering our blessing as Your covenant people. Send us to share the Good News everywhere. Amen.

Our scripture this morning is Exodus 20:1-3 (NET).

God spoke all these words: “I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”

This is the first of the Ten Commandments God gives to His people. It is the most important because it is His declaration of the relationship between us. If we don’t keep this commandment, none of the others matter. God is giving us another chance to reset the connection we knew with Him in the garden. We read in Genesis that before we fell into sin, God would walk in the garden with us. God still wants to walk with us, but we must choose to accept His offer of connection and the responsibilities that go with it. The New Covenant through Christ is God’s ultimate act to redeem us. Only through Jesus can we be saved and reconnected.

Loving Lord, we are sorry for our selfish and disobedient ways. Bless us to be new people in Your love and go to share that blessing with the world. Amen.

Our scripture this morning is Exodus 14:13-14 (NET).

Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord that he will provide for you today; for the Egyptians that you see today you will never, ever see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you can be still.”

At the Red Sea the fleeing Israelites were trapped by Pharaoh’s army (or so the Egyptians thought). His people are afraid but Moses says “Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord that he will provide for you today.” Trusting in the Lord is often difficult, especially when we feel we need to “do something”. We must see that standing firm in His love IS doing something. God works in the world through His people, but as this and other miraculous stories in scripture show us, He certainly doesn’t need us to act.

Heavenly Father, help us to trust Your wisdom and strength, not our own. May we be faithful kingdom workers, ready to act when called, but willing to wait patiently on You. Amen.

Our scripture this morning is Exodus 12:14 (NET).

This day will become a memorial for you, and you will celebrate it as a festival to the Lord – you will celebrate it perpetually as a lasting ordinance.

The confrontation between God and Pharaoh culminates in the death of the firstborn. God’s people are spared by following the instructions He gives them beforehand. God will continue to give them detailed instructions in order to survive because they have no knowledge of the way to live on their own. Some things to notice about this celebration: Passover is the basis for our celebration of Holy Communion. In both cases the meal precedes God’s action – leading the Israelites out of Egypt and raising Jesus from the dead. Here God calls Israel to remember this every year. Jesus offers the bread and cup as His body and blood for our salvation. He invites us to remember His sacrifice for us every time we eat and drink.

Heavenly Father, In Your mercy You sent Christ to save us from our sin. Forgive us and bless us to be Your representatives always. Amen.

Our scripture this morning is Exodus 3:10 (NET).

“So now go, and I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

The story of Moses in Exodus proceeds swiftly from his birth, rescue from the Nile and being raised in Pharaoh’s palace. While he was born a Hebrew, he grew up as an Egyptian. Now God calls him from the burning bush to be the deliverer of Israel. While God had put Moses in between these two cultures, he was viewed with hatred by Pharaoh and mistrust by his own people. It was a difficult task, one Moses tries to avoid, but God answers every concern, and Moses goes with God’s promise to be with him. We have the same promise from Him in everything we face. Our God is always there for us.

Eternal God, we are sorry for the times we try to refuse the tough things You have for us. Bless us to be strong in faith, sharing Your goodness and the blessing of salvation with the world. Amen.

Our scripture this morning is Exodus 1:22 (NET).

Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “All sons that are born you must throw into the river, but all daughters you may let live.”

After the generation of Joseph and his brothers a new pharaoh reigned in Egypt. He made life hard for God’s people, even resorting to a command to kill all the male children born to the Hebrews. We’ll hear this awful edict repeated in Matthew 2:16-18 by a Hebrew king, attempting to prevent the coming of the King of Kings. People of that time would see the connection between Moses being saved to lead his people and Jesus being saved as a baby to save us from our sin. God wants us to know His everlasting love and accept Jesus as our Savior, going to share that joy with the world.

Gracious God, You have sent chosen people to teach us Your way and Your only Son to be the sacrifice that redeems us from our failures. Bless us to be part of what You are doing in creation, bringing Your love to everyone. Amen.

Our scripture this morning is Genesis 50:20 (NET).

As for you, you meant to harm me, but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day.

After the death of their father Jaccob, Joseph’s brothers again worry that he might seek retribution for what they did to him many years before. Joseph answers them with this verse, showing that he sees what happened as God’s provision for His people. This points ahead to the forgiveness Jesus showed to those who took His human life. It is what He taught us to do as well. Forgiving doesn’t mean things never happened. It doesn’t mean there can’t be change. It does mean we can move ahead in confidence, knowing that God is with us and He can use any circumstance for our good.

Loving Lord, we are sorry for the times we retaliate inappropriately. Forgive us and bless us to forgive as You first forgave us. Amen.