Then God spoke all these words… (Exodus 20:1).
How many attempts to read through the Bible stall out and die in these chapters of Exodus? I don’t even know how to count my own.
We have a dramatic break in the book of Exodus at this point. We were in Egypt; now we’re at Mount Sinai. We were in civilization; now we’re in the wilderness. We were in the city; now we’re in the mountains.
God has acted; now he speaks. And aren’t you a little bit more in tune to hear the voice of God when you’re in the mountains?
Ever wonder what kind of people the Bible is for? I used to think it was for good, churchy people. People who went to church every Sunday. Nice people. Never got in trouble. But I’ve started to change my mind. Especially when it comes to these first books in the Bible.
I’ve started to wonder if this part of the Bible is simply for and about people who don’t know any better. Consider this with me.
What do we know about the Israelites at this point? They work. A lot. Seven days a week. (Sound like your retail job?) They don’t go to church on Sunday. They don’t read the Bible. (Moses hasn’t written it yet.) They don’t pray. But still God picks them for his plan of redemption. It’s not about them.
Amazing who God picks, isn’t it? Maybe, just maybe, God chose you, not in spite of your mess, but precisely because you are a mess? What do you think?
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