Living in Faithfulness

Then the LORD said: "I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you. (Exodus 34:10 NIV)

More often than not, we are the distraction from true worship.  We have people to see, places to go, and things to do.  These people, places, or things become important enough to us that we stop paying any attention to God at all.  So, our worship stops.

Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 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. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. (Exodus 34:11-13 NIV)

We may not think of these people, places, or things as “false gods,” but sometimes that is exactly what they become.  They demand our time, energy, effort, and resources (money). So we pour it all into these people, places, and things to the point that there is nothing left over for God.  Even when there is, we give God the leftovers instead of our first and best.

Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. (Exodus 34:14 NIV)

When we truly worship, we are living in faithfulness to God – the only One True God.

So, how about you?  What draws you into worship?

Thankful for Forgiveness

Today is a day that we set aside to be thankful.  I find myself thankful for many of the same kinds of things that others celebrate: family, friends, a place to work, a place to live, clothes on my back, and food on the table.  When I look around at my life, I have many, many reasons to be thankful.  Moses was able to be thankful for this same list.  He was able to add one to the list, though.  He could be thankful for his close relationship with God.

So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. (Exodus 34:4 NIV)

That relationship with God wasn’t always close, at least not from Moses’ perspective.  He argued with God at the burning bush.  He went frustrated to God when Pharaoh didn’t change his mind fast enough.  Now, he was going back to God with blank stone tablets because he had destroyed the first set.  Moses gave God many, many reasons to just give up on him.

Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin." (Exodus 34:5-7a NIV)

I have to wonders what Moses felt that day.  Maybe he expected God to carve the new set of tablets and give them to Aaron or Joshua.  Perhaps he figured God would punish him for his consistent mess-ups.  Maybe he was waiting for God to zap him and put them both out of their misery.  Whatever the expectation, God met Moses with forgiveness.

“Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation." Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. (Exodus 34:7a-8 NIV)

How about you?  Are you thankful for God’s forgiveness?  What helps you enter a place where you worship?

Worship (Picture from a Friend)

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance, but Moses alone is to approach the LORD; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him." (Exodus 24:1-2 NIV)

The fear of the LORD may be the beginning of wisdom, but it is only the beginning.  Fear-driven worship is prompted by God’s Power, but God doesn’t just want us to see His power.  He wants us to see His Plan.

When Moses went and told the people all the LORD's words and laws, they responded with one voice, "Everything the LORD has said we will do." Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. (Exodus 24:3-4 NIV)

Sometimes I think we get the wrong picture about God’s Law.  We think it’s a list of rules designed to stop us from having any real fun.  When we really look at God’s Law, however, we see God’s design and desire for our lives.  If we all lived by the law, there would be no stealing, no murder, no rape, no broken marriages.  Parents and children would actually get along and people would truly love their neighbor as themselves.  This beautiful picture comes from our love for a God who truly cares about us.

Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the "tent of meeting." Anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. (Exodus 33:7-8 NIV)

Maybe we should look at God the way Moses did.  He didn’t live in fear of an all-powerful God.  He drew near to the God who designed us, who created us, who loves us, and who wants to walk with us.

As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to their tent. The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. (Exodus 33:9-11a NIV)

How about you?  What would help you draw near to God as a friend?

Worship (Fear of His Power)

What draws you into worship?

Then say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness. But until now you have not listened. (Exodus 7:16 NIV)

Sometimes, we don’t worship God because we are too busy taking care of ourselves.  We get so caught up in the worries of this world that we don’t bother to consult the designer and maker of it.  We may even get to the point where we don’t believe that God cares or even exists.  This keeps us far, far away from worship.

Let my people go, so that they may worship me. (Exodus 8:1b, 8:20b, 9:1b, 9:13b, 10:3b NIV)

I don’t know if you ever thought about it before, but Moses confronted Pharaoh before each plague was brought against Egypt.  With each confrontation, Moses told Pharaoh the statement listed above.  Pharaoh needed to know that this whole confrontation was about worship.  Only one deserves our worship.   That is the LORD.

Pharaoh's officials said to him, "How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the LORD their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?" (Exodus 10:7 NIV)

Plague by plague, confrontation by confrontation, God was showing Pharaoh that no one is a god like the LORD.  There is only one true God.  As time progressed, the people of Egypt were convinced.  Then Pharaoh’s officials were convinced.  They started to have the fear of the LORD.  When the Israelites found out about the final plague (death to the firstborn son of every household) and that they were going to be saved, a mixture of fear and gratitude overwhelmed them.

Then the people bowed down and worshiped. (Exodus 12:27b NIV)

How about you?  What draws you into worship?

Worship (He Cares)

What drives you to a place of worship?

And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain." (Exodus 3:12 NIV)

Worship is an interesting word to trace throughout the story of Moses and the Israelites.  The accounts tell us that there were certain times and places where they stopped everything to worship.  When Moses encountered God at the burning bush, for example, it was not described as worship.  It was a God- encounter to be sure, but the experience was not described as worship.

When Moses worked through his God-encounter at the burning bush, making it more and more real for himself, then Moses began living out God’s call as we had already discussed a few weeks ago.  He started with his brother, Aaron, and the leaders of Israel.

Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped. (Exodus 4:29-31 NIV)

The Israelites had been living in Egypt for nearly 430 years now.  Many of those years were spend in slavery.  They must have thought that God was punishing them.  Perhaps they thought God had abandoned them.  Some may even have moved away from believing that God existed at all.  Whatever the case, it is clear that God cared about them and when they heard it…they worshipped.

What drives you to worship?