God keeps renewing his covenant with Israel. He keeps reminding them of his promise. I have chosen you. I will be with you. You will be my people, and I will be your God. Have you got it yet?
Rights of property
Exodus 22:1-15
Crimes against humanity
Exodus 22:16-31, 23:1-9
Land and the sabbath
Exodus 23:10-13
Three national feasts
Exodus 23:14-19
God’s covenant with Israel: future conquest
Exodus 23:20-33
Altar built
Exodus 24:3-8
Moses goes up Mount Sinai
Exodus 24:1-2, 9-17
Forty days of instruction begin
Exodus 24:18
Tabernacle items
Materials
Exodus 25:1-9
More laws, which show that God’s standards are for justice and mercy. Those who have been wronged are to receive restitution. Those who have fallen on hard times are to be protected. Those who mistreat others are to be punished. God is compassionate, and he wants his people to act like him. As I mentioned at the beginning, God renews his covenant with the people, and in a fascinating little passage, Moses and the elders of Israel get to see God face to face. (24:9-10) We get a nice description of the pavement, as if they couldn’t lift their eyes to look God in the face.
God is asking for an exclusive relationship with the Israelites. They mustn’t mix with other races, they mustn’t worship their gods, they must take over their land. I have to confess the issue of booting people off the land to give it to my favourite humans gives me trouble. It feels like God playing with people’s lives. Where is his compassion for them? I can’t see it at this point. But I Must acknowledge that there are times when it does show through - I remember God’s treatment of Ishmael, for instance. Is his compassion there all the time, and I just don’t spot it?
Last week was Holocaust Memorial Day - we remembered a time when the Jews felt forgotten. I believe that they never were forgotten, even in the death camps, and so the logic of that is to believe that God didn’t forget those “ites” the tribes he is now promising to drive out before the Israelites.
I’m trusting you on this, God. I hope my faith is not displaced.
I believe in the sun even when it is not shining
I believe in love even when feeling it not
I believe in God, even when he is silent. (A prayer scratched on the wall of a prison cell by Jewish prisoners of the Nazi regime)
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