I have been reading through the Book of Exodus for the past few days. I just finished the book in its entirety this morning. I am really trying to piece together the spiritual significance of this book in a nutshell. I know that Exodus teaches so many good biblical principals. After all, it’s in the book of Exodus that we are introduced to our beloved Moses. Also, in the book of Exodus, we meet Pharaoh for the very first time. And it’s in the book of Exodus that we see God keeping his promise to deliver his nation from 400 years of slavery.
However, by the time we get to the end of Exodus we witness God giving his moral and civil law to man through the mouth of Moses. In fact Moses is often referred to as the Law Giver. And that’s because it’s through Moses that God reveals His Character to man through the giving of the law. I only say that because it’s through the law that man gets a glimpse of what God’s character must be like, which at least to me, can be described in a single word “Holy.” It seems as if the people of Israel had forgotten this. And it may be because they had not heard from God for a very long time.
What I noticed, however, is that God’s Law seemed to be Old News. What I mean by that is that what Moses conveyed in the Ten Commandments were things that they already knew and understood to be right and true. I will just point out a few things I noticed as I read, note Exodus 20:8-9“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:” They knew that this was what God expected of them. Many of them knew that God created the heaven and the earth in six days and on the seventh day he rested and made that seventh day holy. This was something that was indeed imprinted into their spiritual DNA. Here is another one Exodus 20:13-14 “Thou shalt not kill. 14 Thou shalt not commit adultery. 15 Thou shalt not steal.” They knew it was wrong to kill. Remember Moses slew the Egyptian who he witnessed beating his Hebrew brother and Moses fled for his life because he knew it was wrong for him to take another mans life. The Hebrew men knew it was wrong to sleep with another man's wife. And which one of us can say in all seriousness that we need God to tell us that it’s wrong to take that which does not belong to us.
I guess in a nutshell God has always made sure that his law was written into the heart of man. I believe that God, from the time he created Adam, also encrypted into the DNA of man a moral law. By moral, I mean right action vs. wrong action. So then when God gave his law to Moses on Mount Sinai, I believe He was revealing to man verbally what was already written into his heart. Now that sounds a lot like Romans 2:14-15“For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 15 which shew the work of the law written in their hearts” So, then the bible is not just a dusty Old book filled with ancient stories. That Old ancient book holds the key in helping me to discover the inner most secret thoughts of my heart. And it's in that discovery that I find that I am a poor wretched old man in desperate need of a Holy God who is always ready to extend his matchless marvelous grace.
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