David Bahn – Reflections

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These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Exodus 23-25; Psalm 51.

Exodus 24:1-8

Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. ² Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”

³ Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” ⁴ And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵ And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. ⁶ And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. ⁷ Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” ⁸ And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

When I read this passage recounting how Moses “told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do,” I chuckle. And perhaps it’s actually a sad chuckle. It’s like a contrite son – after he’s been punished – promising to obey mom and dad no matter what.

Some of that confidence surely has to do with being afraid of being punished again. But some of it is simply naiveté. They have no idea of the challenges or temptations ahead. They don’t have a clue of what it will be like in 2 months, 2 years, or 20 years. What difficulties will they face? When will it be inexpedient to obey all that Moses has told them of God’s laws?

Then I think of Peter’s comments to the Jerusalem council: “Why would you lay on them a burden that you nor your fathers could not bear?” (Acts 15:10). As you read on in Exodus – and especially in Leviticus you certainly begin to understand why Peter asked that question. How could you possibly keep up with all those laws and rules? There are just too many! And some of them seem quite obscure and arbitrary: “Don’t boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.” Really!?!

OK, in that regard, Ancient Near Eastern texts (especially from Ugarit) suggest that boiling a young goat in its mother’s milk may have been associated with: agricultural magic, fertility rites, or ritual attempts to manipulate crop productivity. If that’s true, then the commandment is essentially: Do not imitate the religious practices of the nations.

Having said that, however, there is only one who has kept the law of God perfectly. He did so from the depth of his heart to the end of his skin. Jesus did what we could never do. And he didn’t do it just to show us it could be done. Jesus fulfilled all righteousness for us. And he elevated it beyond outward does and don’ts.

Now we are called to fulfill a different kind of law – the law of love. And though we will never love perfectly, the Spirit who raised Christ from the dead is at work within us. What once stood over us as accusation now grows within us as fruit. The law of love is not a ladder to climb, but the life that begins to bloom in those who have been redeemed.