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Exodus 33

This chapter picks up right after the golden calf disaster (which I ironically reflected on back in April).  God is not too fond of the Israelites BUT reassures them he will stand by his covenant commitments by still giving them the Promised Land and protecting them through the time of their restoration.  He was, however, so angry with them due to their stubborn disobedience that he was forced to back away to not destroy them.  After He expressed his anger with self-control, the people underwent a heart-wrenching self-examination.  They saw the truth, confessed their sins, and repented before God.  They went as far as to strip themselves of their jewelry and fancy clothes and go into a kind of public grief.  It makes me think of throwing my Apple watch and cell phone to the ground in embarrassment of how much I rely on those things so much in my day-to-day life.  This truly highlights that even when we fail miserably, we can be assure that God’s promises of reconciliation will stand.  All we need to do is go to God openly with our sins, seeking his help to find a new way of life.

Then Moses sets up a ‘meeting tent’ outside of the camp.  This is where he would talk to God ‘face to face, as a man speaks to a friend’.  This private time allows him to kind of push back at God.  Moses questions Him.  He favors Moses so much, then why wouldn’t He personally follow them on their journey instead of sending an angel instead.  It pays off for Moses and his people.  God comes back around but when Moses asks to see His face, God says no human can see His face and live, so he offers a compromise instead.  He’ll put Moses in a rock crevice, cover him with his hand, and let Moses see his back as he passes by.

This chapter is about broken trust being rebuilt through honest confrontation, not just glossed-over forgiveness.  Moses doesn’t accept a watered-down version of the relationship (an angel instead of God).  He holds out for the real thing and gets it.  This ‘see my back, not my face’ moment is often read as – you can experience the effects/aftermath of the divine but not grasp the whole of it directly.  It is important for all of us to have a clear vision of God.  As we see him more clearly, we better understand who we are.  All of us should seek to know God better and to experience his presence in our lives.

When I read out of the Old Testament, I often put myself not only in the shoes of someone like Moses, but more importantly the people that were following him.  For better or worse, at least Moses was able to speak with God quite a bit.  But the people weren’t.  They put their faith and trust in Moses which in turn was put in God.  It is not the same, but on Sundays I certainly put my faith and trust in the pastor each Sunday morning, but that isn’t the answer either.  I am comforted to know that I have a direct line to the Father at any given moment I want it.  Although I am very much guilty of not ringing His number as much as He or I would prefer.  I pray that we all take at least a few more moments of our ‘busy’ days to do 2 things.

1. Continue to ask him for forgiveness for anything and everything that we still aren’t holding a candle to.
2. Ask God, “How can I be a better follower to You?”

Revelation 20 reminds us that evil may appear powerful, but it does not have the final word. Satan is restrained, those who remained faithful to Christ are vindicated, and ultimately every person stands before God’s great white throne.

Where does God defend the vulnerable in this chapter?

God’s defense is especially visible in Revelation 20:4, where John sees those who suffered and were even killed because of their testimony about Jesus. The world may have treated them as powerless and disposable, but God remembers them, honors their faithfulness, and gives them a place with Christ.

This is a powerful reminder: God sees what others overlook. He sees injustice. He sees suffering. He sees those who are mistreated, forgotten, or oppressed. And His justice will ultimately prevail.

How will I reflect His heart today?

If God notices the vulnerable, I should too.

Today I can reflect His heart by noticing the person others ignore, defending someone who cannot easily defend themselves, encouraging someone who feels defeated, and using whatever influence God has given me to serve rather than dominate.

Revelation 20 calls us to live with eternal perspective. Evil has an expiration date. Christ wins. Justice comes.

So today, stand with the overlooked. Speak with courage. Serve with compassion. Remain faithful to Jesus.

Peter began to speak: ” I now realize that it is true that God treats everyone on the same basis.  Those who fear him and do what is right are acceptable to him, no matter what race they belong to.

The voice of condemnation is relentless.  God knows our struggles, the circumstances of our lives that have left us feeling less than worthy. God’s defense is not a single action but a lifelong, relentless pursuit of our relationship with Him.  Even as our sinful selves, God sent his son as an ultimate sacrifice.  He is the defender of the marginalized, prioritizing those who lack societal power. (Psalm 68:5)

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
    is God in his holy dwelling.

He will defend by stepping in as an impartial judge when human systems fail.  His promises will ultimately prevail in eternity.

Dear Lord, help us believe and trust Your truth about not showing favoritism.  Forgive me for the times I have judged.  Give me the obedience of Cornelius to seek Your guidance and the courage of Peter to step outside my comfort zone and follow Him.   ~ Amen

 

Today’s Reading: Luke 18 

The definition of persistence means continuing to do something or carry on in spite of hard times, problems, or people telling you to stop.

In this chapter we have the essential individuals that are in the most need of peace, justice and mercy:  the widow, the tax collector, the blind man, and Christ himself.  These individuals show an unyielding amount of persistence.  

He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

In the beginning of this chapter, the widow is persistent. She’s so persistent that she allows the judge to overturn and get her justice. We do not know how long this widow has been asking for justice. We do know that it’s been such a long time that the judge who does not “ fear God nor respect man “ , finally gives her justice against her enemy because of her insistence.  Persistence is continuing on in spite of difficulty and hard times.

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The tax collector is persistent by being humbled every day. He knows his work is hard and difficult, but  he also knows God’s purpose in his life. He understands that his profession is hard and challenging daily.  He understands that he will be shamed and mocked and despised, but he continues to faithfully ask for forgiveness and for mercy. God gives him justice and mercy through his continuous and persistent cries for himself.  Do we have a situation that we are constantly in and can not grasp the full function and purpose God has for us?

As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36 And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. 37 They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” 38 And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 39 And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 40 And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him.

The blind man when he is informed that Jesus is passing by, he calls him by his family name, son of David. He insistent in his call for Jesus. He continues to push in spite of others telling him to be quiet and to go to the back line. Because of his persistence, he is blessed with his sight again, and he continues to glorify God.

See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32 For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33 And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”

Christ is persistent in a chapter as he is reveals to his disciples and apostles about his death. He goes into detail about it. This is the third occurrence Luke brings up about his coming death.   His persistence is trying to prepare them for the future and the change that will come.

Being persistent can be a good thing.  It shows us that we are passionate about something and we are also dedicated to good. But with persistence comes about change. Sometimes change will result in justice, sometimes this results in mercy to us. When we are persistent  and acknowledge Christ in our life we can grow in ways that we can’t even expect or imagine.

 

Be Blessed

Zechariah Chapter 7

The people of Bethel decided to send a committee of folks to ask the priests and prophets a logistics question.  “Now that things are turning around, do we still need to keep doing the annual fast we started when the temple got destroyed?  Can we stop that?”  It is like a committee asking leadership, “Now that we’ve recovered, do we still have to do it?”

In this instance, God does not give them a simple answer.  He says, “During these 70 years of exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and in early autumn, was it really for me that you were fasting?  And even now in your holy festivals, aren’t you eating and drinking just to please yourselves?”  His point??  The sad and the happy days had become about their own experience, not the actual relationship with Him.

In this passage, the prophet Zechariah offers some generalized instructions for how we are to treat others but also gives a very specific command – “Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners and the poor”.

To oppress means to take advantage or victimize.  Way back then it was usually the strong and powerful who oppose the weak and powerless. Based on these actions, God’s response was reciprocal in a way.  “As I called and they wouldn’t listen, so they called and I wouldn’t listen.  The result was a scattered nation and an empty wasteland that nobody could even walk through.

If God spelled out every kind of moral infraction in the Bible, it would be millions of pages long.  Instead, he commands us to practice general fairness and honesty in all we do.  And in those cases when we have power or authority over others, we must take extra care to make sure we treat them as God wants us to.

Religious performance is not a substitute for character.  You can nail every tradition, every fast, every service, and still miss the entire point if it is disconnected from how you treat the vulnerable and whether your heart is still soft enough to take correction.

As we go forward, we must keep all this in mind.  We all have ‘power and authority’ or someone who may be ‘weak and powerless’.  Whether it is an employee, a child, a spouse, a sibling, a parent or someone completely else.  We may not feel like we are POWERFUL or that someone is POWERLESS in certain relationships, but the point is like so many other times, we don’t always and truly know what is going on in someone else’s mind or lives.  And because of that, God is simply trying to remind us to treat EVERYONE as He wants us to.  It is hard.  It may seem impossible at times.  But there are truly no excuses.  He sent his Son to die for all of us on the cross.  Every ‘excuse’ we could ever have was thrown out the window a very long time ago.  From now on, try and think thrice before we fall guilty to becoming the oppressor.

Amos 5 is a sobering call for Israel to repent, seek God, pursue justice, and reject empty religion. God warns that outward worship means nothing when people’s lives are marked by injustice and sin.

Amos begins with a lament over Israel, describing the nation as though it has already fallen. Israel may still appear strong, but judgment is approaching because the people have turned away from God.

Yet God still offers a path back:

“Seek Me and live.” — Amos 5:4

The people had continued visiting religious centers such as Bethel and Gilgal, but God tells them that religious activity is not the same as genuinely seeking Him. Their worship had become disconnected from obedience.

A major theme of the chapter is justice. Israel’s powerful people were exploiting the poor, accepting bribes, and denying justice to the vulnerable. Amos tells them:

“Seek good and not evil, that you may live.” — Amos 5:14

God desires a society where righteousness is evident in everyday conduct:

“But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” — Amos 5:24

The Day of the Lord

Interestingly, the Israelites were looking forward to the Day of the Lord, believing God would defeat their enemies. Amos warns them that because of their own rebellion, that day would instead bring judgment upon them. It would be darkness rather than light.

God Rejects Empty Worship

One of the strongest messages in Amos 5 is that God rejects worship that is disconnected from righteous living. God says He despises their religious festivals, offerings, and songs because their lives contradict their worship.

God is not looking merely for religious activity—He desires genuine repentance, obedience, justice, and righteousness.

Amos 5 challenges us to ask: Does the way I live Monday through Saturday reflect the God I worship on Sunday?

The chapter’s message can be summarized in three commands:

Seek God.
Seek good.
Practice justice.

When worship and obedience are separated, worship becomes empty. But when we genuinely seek God, His character should increasingly shape how we treat others—especially those who are vulnerable or easily overlooked.

Proverbs 21

Is it a joy for you to live justly? When I think of justice, I immediately am reminded of athletics. Many years ago, there was a commercial running by The Foundation for a Better Life promoting the #PassItOn sportsmanship campaign. A youth basketball team is in the championship game and the ref calls an incorrect turnover but Alex, the player who actually hit it out, tells his coach “I touched it”. His teammates start ragging on him to get him to quiet down, but he knew the just thing to do. He went and told the ref and had the call reversed.

You see in these silent situations, our character is tested. Are you going to do the right thing or quietly do the thing you know you ought not do. I think of situations in school when the innocent loner is getting relentlessly bullied. If you say something, the crosshairs are now on you. Are you going to do the right thing and step in or quietly allow the injustice to continue? Maybe you are at work and you find the paper trail of a coworker stealing money from the company. Do you stay quiet or do you do the just thing and turn them in? “But It’s a huge corporation! The rich just always get richer! They won’t notice it’s even gone!” How would you like it if someone took it from you? Treat others as you would want to be treated.

Not only is it a joy to live justly, but it’s a joy to not come to destruction as the workers of iniquity do. Sin must be punished. The question is who is going to pay the punishment? If you don’t trust in Jesus, the one who bought you at a price by paying for your sin on the cross, then you will pay the just punishment by spending eternity in Hell. The beautiful thing about Jesus is that God’s mercy and justice cross perfectly in His atoning work. Sin is punished while we don’t get what we deserve. His grace is shown by offering us the free gift of salvation by trusting in Him. I want to leave you with Proverbs 21:3, “To do righteousness and justice Is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.” God wants your heart more than He wants your religion. Continue to abide in Him.