Joyful Transformation

The good news is that I am through the book of Exodus….the bad news is that means I am now in Leviticus. I did have a couple of thoughts about the giving of the law to the Israelites.

1. While Joseph and most of the household of Jacob knew God, they were also under the influence of the numerous gods of Egypt and even Joseph’s own mother stole her dad’s household gods. I imagine that the 3,000,000 who crossed the Jordan were for the most part as ignorant as the Egyptians about who God was.
2. While we are given the “laws” during the period of time of the wilderness wanderings, most of the sacrificial laws could not have been implemented until they settled in the promised land.
3. Some of the laws that I find the most strange may have been given to help maintain the health and well being of a huge number of people.
4. Never before had God set aside a group of people as his own. There had to be some distinction between them and their pagan neighbors.
5. Still, I wonder why it all had to be written down….maybe Haggai could answer that…
6. I read the book of Galatians this week after finishing Exodus and was extremely grateful for the fact that I don’t have to try and keep the law. Grace is so marvelous!
   

One other thought I had last week when I was reading about manna was the correlation between the daily bread given and the Lord’s Prayer that tells us to pray for “daily bread”. Perhaps we would be well advised to pay attention to the provisions of God, but to understand he wants us to depend on him again….every day.

# posted by Donna G : 1/16/2007 04:35:00 PM