Episode Transcript
PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Abba, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Abba, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Exodus 34:15–28
“Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.
“Do not make any idols.
“Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt.
“The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock. Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons.
“No one is to appear before me empty-handed.
“Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.
“Celebrate the Festival of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the year. Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord, the God of Israel. I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the Lord your God.
“Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Festival remain until morning.
“Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.
“Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.
CONSIDER THIS
So much to comment on here in today’s text. Too much. Rather than excerpt the text, I decided to print it all. I love how God addresses even the smallest things like yeast and then gardening and the offering of not just firstfruits but “the best of the firstfruits.”
He references not just Sabbath-keeping here but says to keep it even during seasons of plowing and harvest—when it seems insane. It reminds me of our observation from yesterday, “God is as real to us as our worship is real to him.” These commands, the Law, are not about laws but the Lawgiver; not about the rules, but the worship of the Ruler.
Look back over the list, and almost every command has to do with the worship of God. It is interesting how he repeats this notice about making treaties with other nations twice in the span of four verses.
“Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you.”
What’s wrong with making a treaty with a foreign nation? Nothing. The problem is with their gods.
“for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices.”
All about worship: “Do not make any idols.”
All about worship: “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread.”
All about worship: “The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock.”
All about worship: “No one is to appear before me empty-handed.”
I could go on. You get the point. All of life is all about worship. We were made to worship. Worship is first, middle, and last, all about living a comprehensive life of bonded and secure attachment to God. The truth is, we are all pretty good worshipers. Addicts are some of the most voracious worshipers on the planet.
The question is not whether we worship; it’s who or what we worship. Whatever or whoever it is that we order our lives around in order to make them work—that is our God.
Worship is about security—personal security, family security, community security, national security. Whatever we turn to and attach ourselves to for security—that is who or what we worship. For most, it is money. For many, it is image and physical appearance. For others, it is reputation. Only Jesus Christ can deliver true security.
Everyone and everything else that promises security in this life or in the life to come is a false god. God is so adamant about these commands and this covenant, not because he needs our worship. It’s because he wants us to be free. Everything other than worshiping the one true and living God, whose name is Jesus Christ, is slavery.
The wilderness wills to clarify our worship. It will take the Israelites another forty years to learn the biggest lesson of the wilderness—that slavery is not a place or a condition—it’s an identity. Worship matters so much to God and to us because it is the very path to freedom. In fact, the right worship of the true and living God is freedom itself.
Let’s give Paul the last word today from his brilliant word to the Corinthians.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:17–18)
It’s the perfect setup for tomorrow. Stay tuned.
THE PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE
Lord Jesus, you are my Deliverer.
I receive your deliverance from my any and every attachment to anyone or anything other than you to give me any measure of any kind of security.
I receive your deliverance into a deep and bonded attachment to you as my 100-percent Life Provider—my complete source of security and wholeness and wellness—even flourishing.
Heal the wounds from my broken attachments to so many other things and people. Restore me to wholeheartedness, even in the details and small things.
It will be for God's glory, for others' gain, and for our good.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be. World without end, amen! Amen!
