What is about to happen is a holy moment in this leader's life. It always is when we come to God and to His Word. Subsequent history was transformed by this pivotal juncture.
Take time to read the text of Exodus Chapters 19 and 20. Moses has led the people of God to the foot of Mount Sinai, and God begins to prepare Moses and the people to receive His Ten Words - the Ten Commandments.
Book For Men
These preparations reveal some important principles.
The holiness of God - He is not to be taken lightly - or played around with - and He demands obedience - total obedience. This comes up frequently in these chapters. God was going to speak to that people, through Moses, and we see in verse 9 just what position the man of God has - in the eyes of God.
These Hebrew people were to wash their clothes - not an easy thing for them to do considering where they were - but they were to appear in their best before Almighty God. They were to appear before the Living God fresh, clean, attractive.
How they were going to approach God would be a sign of how seriously they were taking their relationship with God. This was not going to be a casual occasion.
Their calling - and our calling in Christ - is to be different - special - attractive - recognising before whom we come in praise and prayer. And, there are these limitations. There are things God does not want us to do. He does not want us to rush into spiritual matters - He puts boundaries - and commands us not to go beyond that. There are times when He wants us for Himself, totally.
Moses has to be told to tell the people time and time again. Repetition is not because there is nothing new to say. Repetition is to ensure that what God wants said has been said adequately - and then the responsibility lies with the people.
Moses communes with God. We never know what will happen when we commune with Almighty God, and particularly, when He calls us and when we do so on behalf of others.
In Chapter 20, we read of these ten words - the Ten Commandments - which Almighty God gives to the people. God wants to control His people, and He wants them to be in control of themselves. We are not set free from sin in order to be free to sin.
And the people of God are not to become a democracy - nobody here among these Hebrews has any democratic rights - and the Church of Jesus Christ is not a democracy. Nor is the church an aristocracy which is government by a few. Nor is the church an autocracy which is government by one man. We are called to be a theocracy, which means we are governed by Almighty God.
The source of the Ten Commandments is in the revelation of God.
Over these past years it has been suggested that Moses was just picking and choosing laws from all over the place and bringing them together in this collection. There is another law book which has very similar laws in it - written by a man called Hammurabi - and there are those who thought Moses just took some from that source, and some from some other document.
No! No! This is the Word of God - this is not the mere ideas of men. Just as the book of Genesis is not a myth - not made up - not just stories - but a record of what happened.
Jesus Christ had no problem referring to or quoting from the books of Genesis and Exodus.
We can trust this Word - no matter how people may regard us as being funny - or old fashioned - or peculiar - or fundamentalist - that only means you believe in the fundamentals of the faith - and who would want to be ashamed of that?
Sandy Shaw
Consequences Which Flow When a Called Chosen Leader and People Approach a Holy God Boys Like Girls - Be Your Everything Tube. Duration : 3.65 Mins.Rating: 4.9262385
Music video by Boys Like Girls performing Be Your Everything. (c) 2012 Columbia Records, a Division of Sony Music Entertainment smarturl.it
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