Category: Exodus

Whether we are facing a new year in these “unprecedented times,” or a new year in “precedented times”, it is still important to look back before moving forward.

The Fifth Commandment serves as a bridge between the first four commandments, which deal with obligations to God, and the last five commandments, which deal with obligations to each other. The Fifth Commandment instructs us to honour parents, and indeed as a broader principle to all authority relationships. The commandment comes with a promise which…

In the Fourth Commandment, the importance of rest and worship is highlighted. God positively reminds us to set aside work and to rest – instead focusing our time on the worship of God. We do so both because it reflects God’s creative pattern, but also because it reflects God’s redemption, when we finally enter into…

While we tend to think the Third Commandment forbids using God’s names as an expletive, the commandment covers more than that. It reminds us God is holy, and we must always treat him that way in all our acts. We must not misuse God’s name for false worship, speaking blasphemy, or treating God like our…

God is not local, and certainly cannot be controlled. He is not to be worshiped as we desire, but instead in the way he commands, and worshiped as he has revealed himself. God is spirit, and those who worship him must do so in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). God is Creator, and cannot…

Idols are much broader than just (literal) religious figures, they are anything which takes the place of God as the highest priority in our life. Many of the ancient world’s idols were actually a physical representation of a sinful desire, such as fertility gods which were often connected with sexual immorality.

The Ten Commandments are laws, yes, but they are so much more. They reveal the standard of morality God requires, and they reveal how a people freed from bondage can live a life which pleases God.

God, the Israelites’ divine King, was coming to visit his people at Sinai. They needed to prepare themselves for his arrival, getting spiritually ready for that special day when God would descend and speak through Moses to them. While God appeared to Israel in the cloud, he has come to us in the person of…

In this passage, God’s people arrive at Mount Sinai, where God will arrive in all his divine glory. There, the God who chose them and rescued them from slavery in Egypt will enter into a covenant (or treaty) with them, establishing his reign over them as their Great King.