May 8, 2018: Day 24 – Exodus 24

This is a very significant chapter for a whole variety of reasons.  Look at the beginning 8 verses which show the meticulous care that Moses had for his people.  He established pillars for each tribe where they could worship their Lord and their God.  He did not leave them without an opportunity to worship God and to allow the people to fulfill their responsibilities of worship to God.  The golden calf example should be even more shocking as a result of this chapter.  It isn’t as if God left them with nothing.  He had prepared them for his time up the mountain.  

Some of the details that we may have missed in this story because we think we know it so well.  Notice who goes up the mountain with Moses and who stays behind.  Joshua goes up the mountain with Moses (vs.13).  God has been preparing Joshua for quite a long time to take over for Moses, even before he was given the task after the people are disobedient to the Lord.  It also places him outside of the group who disobeyed the Lord.  God prepares us for what our next step will be even before we know what that step will be.  I know that there are many times in my life when I can look back and think: I am so grateful that I had a certain experience because God has prepared me through that experience for today.  God is always at work.

Notice how long Moses is up the mountain.  This example of forty days and nights is the same time period that we have for the flood.   It is the same number, except in years, that the people of Israel are banished to the wilderness.  Later in the New Testament it is the same amount of time that Jesus spends in the wilderness. The similarity to that event is significant.  God was up a mountain receiving the law from  the Lord.  Jesus was in the wilderness preparing himself, as Lord, for a life of ministry to the people.  That wilderness experience and those forty days are formative for both Moses and Jesus.