Day 40

Exodus 29:1–30:10; Matthew 26:14-46; Psalm 31:19-24; Proverbs 8:14-26

TODAY IS OUR fortieth day together. If we think back to the beginning of the year until now, we can contextualize a couple of the stories we’ve encountered in the Bible. For example, it rained forty days and forty nights continuously during the story of Noah’s flood. Jesus’ time of fasting and preparation in the Judean wilderness before He began His public ministry lasted forty days. That would be from today back to New Year’s Day. And since we’ve been focused on Jesus’ discourse on the end times over the last several days, our fortieth day together gives us a good opportunity to simply recap where we’ve been in the Old Testament and to observe the texture and shape of the story unfolding before us so that we don’t get lost.

In Exodus, we’re in the wilderness. For the last month, we’ve tracked the story of how the children of Israel came to be. It began with a promise to Abraham. It then passed to the miraculous son of his old age, Isaac. The sons born to Isaac were Jacob and Esau. Jacob had twelve sons, and when Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, we began to understand the term children of Israel, for that is who they were —Israel’s (Jacob’s) children.

Joseph was one of those children —a very special one to Jacob. The jealousy of Joseph’s brothers caused them to traffic Joseph into slavery. He wound up in Egypt. The circumstances were dreadful, but in the end, he became second-in-command to the Egyptian pharaoh of his time. Because of his rise to power, the entire family of Israel ended up in Egypt, where they remained for 430 years.

God’s authority and resolve to free the children of Israel from slavery and to remake them into His chosen people were on full display as plague after plague fell on the Egyptians until the Hebrew people were set free. We witnessed the destruction of Pharaoh’s army at the Red Sea when the Hebrews crossed over on dry land and the Egyptian army permanently settled at the bottom of the sea.

Now we are at Mount Sinai, and God is giving incredibly detailed instructions on how this new culture of holy people are to conduct themselves, creating a new identity for them as a nation. This will eventually be known as the law, or the Mosaic law.

If you look back over the month and a half we’ve been on this journey, it should be clear that the Bible is not an unapproachable book filled with cryptic and mysterious commands and customs. It is very much alive and vibrant because it often becomes a mirror into our souls and challenges us deeply, as only the Word of God can.

WORSHIP:

How great is the goodness you have stored up for those who fear you. You lavish it on those who come to you for protection, blessing them before the watching world. You hide them in the shelter of your presence, safe from those who conspire against them. You shelter them in your presence, far from accusing tongues.