“You promised we could go; you promised we would have fun; you promised it would happen!” These words sting a parent’s whole being when we must disappoint our children by unfulfilling a promise given.  In our humanness, living in an imperfect world, trying to manage time while others manage your time for you, we cannot always deliver on promises given to our children.  As parents, we quickly learn to never make promises that we might not be able to deliver. But what we can do is promise to love them—unconditionally—forever.

The only promise we can rely on is God’s love, mercy, and grace.  What God says He will do—He does!  God guides.  God provides.  God never leaves us to fend for ourselves.  God doesn’t hide His instructions like clues in a scavenger hunt for treasure.  God states clearly in His Word and through His Son, Jesus what He wants from us—our full, undivided love and attention when He speaks.  God loves us deeply. God wants His best for us.  So, God gave us Jesus to demonstrate just how deeply and completely He loves us.  It is no wonder that God wants men and women, created in His own image, to love like He loves us with focused, committed love that never quits with devoted adoration for who He is because He never gives up on us!  Our love, which is God’s love in us, prompts us to worship God with desires to please the One who loved us first! 

Our love for God is a loyal commitment to Him as the One and Only God. Our love births a desire to serve the One we love because loving and serving is one in the same.  You can’t have one with the other!  Jesus demonstrated how to be a servant who responds with Love. (Philippians 2)

I’ve read and studied God’s Word from Genesis to Revelation many times throughout by lifetime. After years of classes and seminars, theological discussions with seminary leaders as experts in the Word, it all boils down to this:  God simply wants us to love Him back—with all our hearts, all our minds, and all our souls—all that is us.  God is love and created us to love and worship Him. Real Love is the character and  “created image of God” in us.  God calls and we must listen for the call to commune with Him.

“My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.” And my heart responds, “LORD, I am coming.” Psalm 27:8, NLT

Exodus 24

The Covenant Confirmed

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance, ² but Moses alone is to approach the Lord; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him.”

³ When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.” ⁴ Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said.

He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵ Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. ⁶ Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. ⁷ Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”

⁸ Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

⁹ Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up ¹⁰ and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. ¹¹ But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.

¹² The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”

¹³ Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. ¹⁴ He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them.”

¹⁵ When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, ¹⁶ and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. ¹⁷ To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. ¹⁸ Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God has invited Moses to spend some quality time with Him—forty days and nights to be exact!  Mm, we recall Jesus going out into the wilderness of the desert when He walked the earth to fast and to commune with God, His Father, before beginning His ministry for forty days and nights, too.  (Matthew 4) God likes the order and significance of numbers!  We also know that the Enemy of God met Jesus there to try to distract, deceive and deconstruct the Son of Man who felt hunger.  The Enemy knew Jesus was also the Son of God, evil’s ongoing opponent, the One present when evil was kicked out of heaven for trying to be God. The Enemy’s goal is to defeat Jesus.  The Enemy’s goal today is to defeat anyone who believes and follows Jesus!

From the beginning, God created mankind with the purpose to bless them with His love. God created mankind for the pleasure of their company.  God loved being in communion with them in a pure, loving relationship. Genesis 3 says God would come to the garden in the cool of the evening to spend time with Adam and Eve—until their disobedience and new alliance with evil broke the bond of their relationship.  God had created beauty and perfection for them to enjoy. God provided all they needed with only one request—don’t eat of the tree of knowledge of evil.  But the sin of wanting it all with all they thought they deserved; along with evil’s suggestion that they be God, not just be like God, led them to hide from God. Their sin upset the “apple cart”, so to speak, of a perfect communion with God—and for all who would follow.

God’s love is so deeply embedded into humanity as a precious resource that gives life!  This is why it pains Him with jealousy when we choose less than God think we can do life without Him. God knows when we choose anyone or anything but Him; we are refusing all the blessings He stands ready to pour out over us! 

Walking with God means doing what He says for our good and His glory.  We learn that obedience to God shows our love for Him that flows from our hearts to His.  Pleasing God becomes our holy response to God—if we stay focused on God like loyal servants would to a king.  King’s servants are trained to know what the King wants when He wants it before He asks!  Great servants jump at the chance to serve their king with the mere nod of his head or wave of his hand. 

Loving, respectful servants of God, committed in a holy covenant with God know instinctively how to respond to the One who gave all He had so that could have eternal life. When God gives us nod with the wave of His hand; He is giving us opportunities to respond with respect, awe, honor and praise for the One gave us His One and Only Son.

Saved By the Blood

God gave the Israelites guidelines for their relationships with each other (even their enemies) and with him. These guidelines set Israel apart from the other nations. God also gave a special ceremony that confirmed the agreement between God and his people. In the ceremony blood from animals symbolized forgiveness of sins and reconciliation to God.

Jesus was sent to earth to shed his sacrificial blood as the new covenant to remove our sins once and for all an reconcile us to God.  Ephesians 1:7 says, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Because of Christ’s shed blood, God is able to forgive us of sins because He took our punishment.

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 John 1:7

God rescued His People from bondage to the Egyptians.  God provided a safe passage out of Egypt as they walk through dry ground through the Red Sea.  God guided His People through the desert on their journey to a new land, the land promised to their ancestors by God.  God fed them daily and gave them plenty of fresh water to survive on the journey. 

God does the same for us who believe in Jesus and walk in His ways.  God lays it all before us as He illuminates the right path, even when it the path leads us through thick brush or rocky climbs up a mountainside.  God leads us step by step with all we need for the journey.  God shows us His purposes for us; not only in our arrival to our destinations but in the journey itself. God was, is and always will be God.  Thanks be to God!

Lord,

Thank you for this journey of thoughts that reminds me again of your awesome power and provision.  Thank you for always being with us and not giving up on us.

In Jesus Name, for our good and Your Glory, Amen!