This Week in Deeper

In Deeper, one of our core-values is “team-work makes the dream work” this is evident here, it took a team effort, a team that had many different skills and talents, coming together to accomplish a greater purpose.

We as a culture need to look at this example and realize that there are all sorts of different roles within the body of christ. There are things that I'll never be able to do, but there are things that I can do, that not everybody else can. We are all beautifully, wonderfully and fearfully made by God.

One of my favorite quotes is from Albert Einstein, which says “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

There is a place for you in the body of Christ! If you’re not sure where that place is, pray and ask God to reveal it to you!

They had a front seat to some of the Bible's most incredible miracles, and yet at the first opportunity the Israelites failed in one of the worst ways imaginable. They broke God's commandments and turned their back on the one who brought them out of slavery. As easy as it is for us to question the Israelites, we often times act in a similar way. Maybe you haven't built a golden calf, but how many times have we neglected our time with God, in order to please ourselves. Let's make it a priority to focus on God and wait on His timing!

As we read about all these specifications throughout these 6 chapters I want us to look at the veil, because later on in the Bible this will play a great significance. The veil separated the Holy Place where the priests prayed and gave thanks on behalf of the people, from the most holy place.

This served as a reminder of the separation of a holy God and a sinful people. People were not able to freely approach God. In fact only once a year was the high priest permitted to enter the most holy place and that was under certain conditions to atone for the sins of the people.

You might’ve heard the phrase “The veil has been torn” as it relates to the old covenant vs the new covenant. This is in reference to Jesus Christ fulfilling the law and becoming the blood sacrifice that would bridge the gap between God and human.

When you accept Jesus you have full access to God and your sins are atoned for by the blood of Jesus.

In fact if you look at Matthew 27:51, the moment Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple ripped from top to bottom.

Jesus became the ultimate high priest, became the blood sacrifice, and if we give our lives to Him we have permanent access to God the Father.

Exodus 21:1-11 presents to us a cultural crisis of sorts, the big question we walk away with in this passage is, does God actually condone slavery. My answer to this question in short is absolutely not, specifically in the terms of how we as a culture define the word slavery.

The misinterpretation of this text is has caused an incredible amount of pain, this is why it is vital that we as Christians dedicate ourselves to understanding the Bible, not just reading it and interpreting it on our own.

First let’s address the question, “does Israelite slavery compare to the evil institution of slavery that we understand today?”

Understand that being a Hebrew slave was voluntary, and had more to do with paying off debts. Being a Hebrew slave or servant was more like getting a job and working for someone that you submitted to, as opposed to being taken against your will. In fact, Exodus 21:16 explicitly and clearly condemns this practice “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.”

This shows us that God, in no way promotes, and in fact condemns any type of slave trading. Therefore anytime in the Bible you read a passage where a master buys a slave, we know that according to God’s law, that slave was sold to their master on their own, and not by any 3rd party.

There was no, “I wonder how the Lord is going to provide this time” or “God didn’t bring us this far to let us die” they went straight to complaining about their circumstances. They did this several times, and from our perspective this is just straight up annoying. In 16:3 they say, ““If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” just before God provided quail and manna

But frankly we don’t have much to stand on here. It’s easy to distance ourselves from the situation that these people find themselves in, for them it was very real, or at least that is what they might tell us if they were telling the story. But what about when it’s our own experience. What about the times we’re waiting on God to move in a situation. Do we have complete faith and trust in God, or do we resort to getting angry at God for not moving and reacting the way we think He should.

These plagues weren’t just random events, they were targeted at Egyptian gods in order to make a mockery of their perceived power and to show that God was more powerful than all of their gods.

When Moses went back to the leaders of Israel, they refused to listen to him, because after they listened to him the first time, their lives got much more difficult. This is precisely what Pharaoh wanted to happen. Yet God, in His grace saved the people anyway.

I doubt that Joseph's brothers woke up that day and thought, "Today we are going to kill Joseph" and yet that's exactly what they set out to do, until they spotted those Ishmaelite traders passing through. They probably thought they would never see of hear from Joseph ever again. But God had much bigger plans. God used this terrible situation to bring about the very situation that this small nation needed to grow into a strong people. 

Twenty-Two years has gone by and we can see that a lot has changed. Obviously for Joseph. He was successful in Potiphar's house until he was falsely accused and thrown into prison, only to have God take him from prison and elevate him to the second highest office in the land. Joseph's brothers on the other hand had spent the last twenty-two years living in the grief of their actions. They had broken the heart of their father and now unbeknownst the them have the opportunity to rectify their actions.