Exodus 22 – 24 and Lunch with Esther

Exodus 22 – 24

In chapters 22 – 24, God continues to be fairly specific about how His people are to live, in terms of protection of property, social responsibility, and justice.

Jesus summed this up very well when He said in Matthew 22:37 – 40 “…”You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” How different the world would be if everyone lived according to these commandments!

Did you notice that widows and orphans were not to be exploited? James 1:27 defines pure and genuine religion as “taking care of orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”

In chapter 23, God discusses three festivals the Israelites were supposed to celebrate annually:

1. Festival of Unleavened Bread
   1. For seven days they were not to eat anything made with yeast
   2. It was to be celebrated every spring in the month of Abib
   3. It is the anniversary of their departure from Egypt
2. Festival of the Harvest (also called Firstfruits)
   1. They were to bring God the first crops of the harvest
3. Festival of the Final Harvest (also called Ingathering)
   1. Celebrated at the end of the harvest season once all crops have been harvested

God sets out some common rules for these festivals and then promises He will send an angel before them to protect them on their journey and to lead them safely to the place He has prepared for them. He promises He will destroy the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites so the Israelites can live where those tribes now live. He promises to send His terror ahead of them and create panic among all the people they invade, but He will not drive them out all at once in a single year, because the land would become desolate and will animals will take over.

Note that He admonishes them not to make treaties with them or their gods, because they will cause the Israelites to sin against Him.

When Moses presents this information to the people, “All the people answered with one voice, ‘We will do everything the Lord has commanded.’”

Moses read them from the Book of the Covenant and they repeated their vow.

Moses, Aaron, Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel climb up the mountain and there they saw the God of Israel. They ate a covenant meal in his presence.

After this, God has Moses and his assistant Joshua go up the mountain so He can give him the tablets of stone. To the Israelites, the glory of the Lord appeared at the summit like a consuming fire.

Moses stays on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Tomorrow, it’s Exodus 25 – 27.

Lunch with Esther

Today, I had lunch with Esther at Mimi’s Cafe in Brandon. It was good as usual, but the best was the Red Velvet Cheesecake. Esther didn’t have dessert; the poor thing is doing Weight Watchers.