Day 6 of 90 Devotion

Dearest e-votees-

Day six of our cover to cover voyage through the Bible. If you care to follow along you can find links to the assigned Bible passages at:

www.christthegoodshep.org/biblein90days.html

Peace,
Karl

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Day 6 Readings: Exodus 15:19-28:43

Having been delivered from the hands of the Egyptians God begins to set up provision of food, order and ritual for God’s people:

• Water from the rock and bread from heaven are given (forerunners of baptism and communion?)
• Laws and practices are given (many of which limit abuse and put a hedge of protection around the vulnerable)
• Forms for worship and divination of God’s will are established (tabernacle is forerunner of Temple which is forerunner of our own bodies housing the Holy Spirit)

How quickly we forget God’s provision and seek the delicacies of the oppressor’s land or hoard limited supplies for ourselves and neglect God’s instructions. We grieve God when we so quickly fall into disobedience. God’s mercies and grace are new every morning. Will we wait until morning? Perhaps there is a reason we pray for daily bread in the Lord’s Prayer.

How quickly we seek our own advantage and prey upon the most vulnerable taking what is theirs while enslaving them and scapegoating them. God’s heart is with the aliens, the widows and the foreigners. We who have been cut off shouldn’t so quickly forget what that pain was like. God, through Moses, gives the basic guidelines of life in the 10 Commandments and other laws of communal living. Do we receive them as gift or burden?

God gives us ways to make offering, prayer, supplication and seek God’s will. God shows us how to be in relationship. We have always had trouble living into these forms. Jesus revealed these forms were forerunners of relationship with him. Will we let God show us how to let our bodies, our minds, our times and our lives be places where God can dwell and be glorified?


God, you provide for us so very thoroughly and we push back with dissatisfaction and distrust and disdain. Renew our hearts and our lives that we might reflect your heart and the life you intend for us. Amen.