God Is Unseen: Hear His Word (Ex. 20:21-26)

6/20/2008 7:54 AM

My Worship Time           Focus:  God is unseen: hear His Word

Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference:  Exodus 20:21-26

            Message of the verses:  “21  So the people stood at a distance, while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was.

22 ¶  Then the LORD said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven.  23  ‘You shall not make other gods besides Me; gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves.  24  ‘You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.

25  ‘If you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it. 26  ‘And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, so that your nakedness will not be exposed on it.’”

            This section of Scripture begins a new chapter in Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on Exodus and goes from Exodus 20:22-24:8.  The chapter is entitled “The Book of The Covenant.”

            God does not share His glory with anyone or anything and idols were something that God is very much opposed to and this section has to do with idols.  In Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on this section he writes about the Word of God and how the believers today, and also Israel of the past should be people of the Book.  Now the Pharisees of Jesus’ day made the Scriptures an idol for if they would have truly studied the Scriptures they would have seen Jesus in them and then they would have worshiped Him.  John 5:37-47 speaks of this:  “37  "And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form.  38  "You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.  39  "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; 40  and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. 41  "I do not receive glory from men; 42  but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. 43  "I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44  "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?  45  "Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope.  46  "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.  47  "But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?’”

            One of the reasons that God did not allow anyone to see Him was that they would have made an idol of Him and worshiped the idol instead of Him. 

            God’s law was given by Him and is perfect just as He is perfect however the Law will not save anyone as Paul wrote:  “because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”  This is Romans 3:20 a passage that I read this morning before starting on this part of my devotions. 

            In the heathen religious ceremonies there was nakedness and there was prostitution, but there was special dress for the priest of God and in verse twenty-six of Exodus twenty God told the people that their altars should not have steps so that the nakedness of the people would not be revealed when they would go up the steps.  God also told them to make their altars out of earth or out of uncut stones for their altars could become an idol.  Idols do not only take the place of the person of God, but they take the place of the Word of God.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I wrote earlier either in my prayer page of in my SD that I had had a thought come to my mind right before I saw the blood in the commode that this would keep me from going to the job in Hawaii and was very disturbed about it, even to the extent of calling Pastor Steve and speaking to him about it.  I am now convinced that this thought was either from my flesh or from the enemy using my flesh to discourage me.  The reason that I write about this now is that this SD has helped me come to that conclusion for the Word of God is how I learn and even communicate with the God of the Word.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1. Seek the Lord to search my heart for any sin.
2. Give myself to the Lord for worship and service.
3. Yoke myself up with the Lord Jesus Christ.
4. Trust the Lord to guide my path today.
5. Learn to pray as Epaphras prayed.

Memory verses for the week:                      Colossians 4:12-13

12.    Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.

13.    For I testify for him that he has a deep concern for you and for those in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

6/20/2008 8:50 AM