Exodus 21 is not just a list of laws. They are laws revealed by God at the foot of Mt Sinai to His people. We are not just reading a list of practical wisdom that Israel’s elders came up with. The people’s God came down and revealed Himself to them in the giving of His law. These civic laws remind God’s people of who they are and God’s actions define their identity. They are not defined by their sins, nor their past slavery, nor even their present situation. Only God defines them.
Many of us believe that God speaks through His word, and all of it. God’s people gather around His word, and He loves to bless them as they read it.
Yet, Exodus 21 is a pretty interesting piece of text and I suspect that many of us don’t usually read this for our devotions. When we do read it, most of us are either confused or ashamed for this text deals with slavery. To our modern minds, slavery is deplorable, so how can the Bible speak of it?
God has chosen to include this section of text in His Word. He has something to say about slavery, so what is it? What does He want us to see. As we go on, let’s keep this at the back of our minds, that these laws are actually incredibly practical, and tell us something about God that we should fall down on our faces and worship Him.
Altars. What are they for the modern person? Some speak of “a fresh altar experience” as a direct application of this passage. Others might suggest that this passage doesn’t apply to us today.
But if we believe that all of the Bible is God’s word, this passage is also part of it, and it will surely challenge what we know about Christianity and about our God. Have you felt like your Christian walk is all about setting up altars to remember the Christian experience? Is your Christianity defined by your experience rather than God’s Word and God’s law? It is to these views and in this context that God speaks to us today through these words in Exo 20:22-26.
Exo 20 is the climax of the book of Exodus, where everything previously builds up to this place. Today’s passage shows us the law, but how many of us understand and enjoy the law? Do we think of the law as a disappointment after the more exciting things in Exodus? Many of us struggle with the law, and especially this part of Exodus after the narrative is done. Here, God calls the people to Himself and gives them the law.
We’ll wrap up our OT overview with this study on the prophetic books, the major and minor prophets. These books are so termed not because of their importance, but because of their length. However, before we examine them more closely, it will be good to examine the historical context of these books and their place in the Old Testament, which we surveyed so far in the past few weeks.
When we behold God’s wisdom, we too will have our breath taken away. In this study we’ll dive into how to approach the Wisdom literature, and how studying these books lets us understand and navigate life in a fallen world.
In this session, we carry on with our survey of the Old Testament, looking at the period of exile. The timeline has shifted forward, and the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel are located in this time period. We will see in this overview of the exile that God does plan to restore His kingdom, even by using pagan, non-Jewish kings to accomplish His purposes. And as we approach this study, it will be important to remember that these studies of the Old Testament serve ultimately to reveal how God accomplishes his redemptive purposes in Christ Jesus.
In this second study in our series, we are moving on from the books of Moses to looking at the next set of books — Judges and Kings. These historical books tell us the history of Israel especially 40 years after they left Egypt. Israel’s history shows failure of leaders to rule as God intended, and also tracks Israel’s disobedience. Why is this important for us? The history in these books are our history!
Through this series, we hope to drive home the fact that you do not need a seminary degree to read the Bible. Wait what? Yes, because sometimes in our churches, we talk about the Bible as if the Old Testament were only for seminarians. That is wrong. The OT is for God’s children, and all Christians are His children.
Today, we look at the first 5 books of the Old Testament, also known as the Torah, the Pentateuch, and the books of Moses. Read on to see the big structure and key sections to fill in that structure, so that you would have confidence to fill in everything in-between!
Every year, to wrap up our Advent series and to mark Christmas, we will hold a “Lessons and Carols” session at the Fellowship. This year was no exception. At this session, instead of our usual Bible study format, we read from select texts in the Bible and also sang hymns fit for the season.
Over the past 4 weeks, we’ve studied how Jesus’ genealogy (Matt 1:1-17), birth circumstances (Matt 1:18-2:6), and post-birth socio-political happenings (Matt 2:7-18) tell us something of Christmas’ joy amidst the tragedy of our broken world. This week’s study rounds up the series as we look at the significance of Jesus’ return from Egypt. Our text today is connected to its preceding texts with the word “but”. What changed, and what does it mean for us today? Read on to find out more!
Jesus is a king with authority who makes His claims with legitimacy. He is the fulfilment of long-given promises and this is an important part of His identity because how we think about His rule and authority affects what we think of Him. Until we understand this, God will just be a TV channel that we choose to turn on and off at will. Today’s passage will show us different responses of people when they encountered this King.
If Jesus is king, then we are not, and how can that be a joyful thing for us? Today’s passage tackles this problem head on.
What have you been waiting for? There are many different types of waiting, and different objects of waiting. Here’s why it is important - what you are waiting for will determine how you live, and whether your life is worth living. Read on to find out what God’s people waited for, and are waiting for!
Advent is a time in the Christian calendar when Christians reflect on the first coming and birth of Jesus. At Fellowship, we will spend this Advent on the first two chapters of Matthew, which forms part of the Gospels. Gospel simply means “good news” and these four books are actually talking about one piece of good news – our salvation. These are four accounts of the one man, Jesus of Nazareth. It chronicles His birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection. Each writer has a different emphasis and audience. Mark emphasized the servanthood of Jesus because it was written to a Roman audience used to leadership and leaders who lorded it over them. Matthew was for the Jews, God’s covenant people who have been waiting for a Messiah. Kingdom is therefore one major theme that Matthew writes.
This text is one of the high points in this book. From Genesis 3, we’ve been moving through the story of redemption. In Exo 19, now God’s people have been delivered from slavery and have gathered, organized themselves, and even fought off enemies. They are now at the foot of an important mountain, first referred to in Exo 3. Moses has been to this mountain before. Moses will remember how 40 years ago he saw fire on this mountain, and met God. He heard the voice of God and God’s command to set God’s people free. The sign given to Moses was that he will return and worship God here. Exo 19 is a fulfilment of this promise.
How do we describe God? We often think of adjectives like holy, perfect, creator, omniscient, powerful. But have we ever thought about God as a covenantal God? Have we ever thought about God as a husband? This passage covers perhaps one of the most important parts of the Old Testament- the Mosaic covenant.
God’s people are being forced to think about practical problems that comes with being a nation not just in the form of providing for sustenance, but also dealing with the problem of their hearts. A young nation also has to deal with warring nations (last week). In Exo 18, their evolution from a ragtag group of refugees to a travelling band of migrants, they’ll have to deal with leadership issues.
As cheesy Tumblr pages dutifully inform us: “We all have our battles to fight.”
But what are you fighting for? As you toggle between the different roles you play and stages you run through, the question is the same - who are you fighting, and what are you fighting for?
In Exo 16, God has just provided for them through the daily bread, and in the previous chapters, the people have been grumbling not once, but twice. Once with water, and another time for food. They disobeyed God in their food gathering, but God still continued to provide for them. They are experiencing daily miracles. In this passage, we will read of an Israel that still continue to doubt God and testing Him with the question “God, will you provide for our needs?”
