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We continue today with details of the tabernacle that Israel is to build.  This tabernacle will fulfill a number of purposes: it is the place in Israel’s camp where the LORD’s presence will dwell, and where the people will come to affirm their commitment to the LORD.

The design itself is representative of the LORD’s nature and expectations.  It is both exquisite and simple.  It is to be portable, yet made of the finest materials.  It is not a representation of God – like a graven image or statue would be – but its space will be filled with His Holiness.

In a world where gods were local and limited, and whose shrines reflected these limits, this tabernacle – like this God – is unlike any structure in Israel’s experience.

I’ll draw your attention again to the precision of these instructions: how the curtains are to be coupled together; the number of clasps that would suspend them; the types of wood and metals and precious stones to be used; even the directions the walls should face.  I encourage you to sketch out a diagram of this for yourself.

In chapter 28 Moses is commanded to “speak to all the skillful, whom [the LORD has] filled with a spirit of skill, to make garments for the priests.  Aaron’s family will be ordained to serve in the priesthood, and Aaron will be elevated to serve as High Priest, to represent Israel before the LORD.

These garments are not only to be made “for glory and for beauty,” but also to indicate the practical significance of Aaron’s role.  His clothing represented the unique status of Israel before the LORD, both His claim on them and their required faithfulness toward Him.  Listen for how often the ideas of guilt, beauty, glory, and even death reappear.

Our verse for this week is Hebrews 11:24-25: By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

Exodus chapters 26 through 28.  Now let’s read it!

We pick up in the middle of God’s covenant with Israel that began all the way back in chapter 20.  As you read today, remember that this all started with the words, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.  You shall have no other gods before me…”

These are the founding documents of a new nation, much like a constitution, but with one glaring difference: this covenant is not negotiated and codified by man.  The LORD is the conquering King, not a negotiating partner; and the children of Israel are the LORD’s subjects, not His fellow citizens.

Chapter 23 continues commands on what justice should look like in their nation.  Listen, again, for commands that get repeated or restated.  Then comes statutes guiding how to set things aside – including Sabbath, festival, and sacrifice – as devoted to the LORD.

The final section of this covenant is the LORD’s great promise: He is giving them the land of Canaan.  This generation will see the fulfillment of the promise that they’d heard about from long ago.

All that’s left is for Israel to ratify the agreement, and that’s what happens in chapter 24.  It says that when Moses read to them the covenant, all the people affirmed that “All the LORD has said we will do, and we will be obedient.”  Listen for that promise to be tested in the centuries, years, and even days to come.

Listen also for the many references to the LORD’s terrifying power, which sets up the final section of Exodus: the instructions and building of the tabernacle.  This is the place in which the LORD’s glory will rest and where Israel will hear God’s voice and present their offerings to Him.

A word of encouragement: reading these blueprints might seem tedious.  Again, take as much care in listening to these details as the author takes in transmitting them.  There is a design, both for construction and for worship, being laid out here.  Think about what the Israelites are learning about their God through this.

Our verse for this week is Hebrews 11:24-25: By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 

Exodus chapters 23 through 25.  Now let’s read it!

And now…after nearly four weeks of breathtaking narrative, we reach something entirely different: Law and statute.  It might seem appealing to disengage at this point, both because there is so little narrative, and also because there is so much foreign matter – stuff that seems culturally  distant or downright troubling.

But there is story here, and we’re going to walk through it together. Much of what you hear in these chapters will be built on those Ten Commands in chapter 20, and is essential for setting up community life as a new, free, nation. Most importantly, it’s a story of how every little detail of life is to be committed to God as sacred space.

The first set of laws today has to do with the treatment of slaves.  Just as when we read about marriage in Genesis, so now we have to listen not with modern ears, but with ancient ones.  God is laying down boundaries for institutions that already existed.  Listen carefully for words of protection, even within this troubling environment.

The next set of laws has to do with acts of violence and carelessness, even that of animals.  Think about how important it is for laws of restitution and retribution to be set out in advance.  This was to be a nation of laws and statutes, rather than individuals and clans seeking their own version of justice.

At the end of today’s reading we read a variety of statutes regarding proper treatment of God, of sojourners, widows, and orphans, of the poor, and of first fruits.  Listen especially to how God ties their treatment of sojourners to their own history.

My final encouragement today is this: as you read through the law, both today and through the next few books, keep in mind what is in the Israelites’ past, rather than what is in our past.

Our verse for this week is Hebrews 11:22: “By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.”

Exodus 21 and 22.  Now let’s read it!

After the encounter with the Amalekites, Moses and the children of Israel enter the familiar territory of Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro.  Just as Melchizedek had worshipped the LORD with Abraham, so now Jethro worships the LORD with Moses.  Hear his words of wonder and admiration for the LORD, who is “greater than all gods.”

As Jethro observes Moses and the Israelites, he notices the burden that Moses has taken on.  Consider the irony of a people who (in Moses’ words) had wanted to stone him yesterday, but now look to him to solve all their disputes.  Jethro has some advice for Moses, which Moses humbly and wisely heeds.

Notice how Moses frames the situation: “The people come to me to inquire of God, and I make them know the statutes of God and His laws.”  This is setting up the next great event – one of the Great Events, when the LORD gives all Israel, and not just His prophet, His statutes and laws.

One of the gifts of reading through the entire Bible is getting to read really famous passages in their context.  Just about everyone is familiar with the Ten Commandments, but let’s listen to the grand lead-in.

The Israelites camp “before the mountain,” Horeb, or Sinai, just as the LORD had promised Moses.  The LORD calls an assembly.  The people respond.  The LORD announces His coming.  The people prepare themselves, even down to their basic activities.  The LORD arrives.  The people are terrified.  And then the LORD tells Moses what He wants all Israel to know.

The sequence matters here.  The Ten Commandments don’t stand alone but are part of a covenant, that is set down in a real place.  Read Chapter 20 from the beginning, and see how it flows: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, out of the hand of slavery.  You shall have no other Gods before Me…”

Remember our verse for this week is Hebrews 11:22: “By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.”

Exodus 18 through 20.  Now let’s read it!

Yesterday, we read how memory was forged through feast and festival, through sacrifice, and even through the marking of time.  Today, we begin with memory recounted through song.  Listen to how the poetry sways between elevating God’s strength and remembering God’s deeds.

But soon this hopeful journey comes up against the realities of life, as the crises hit one after another.  The first crisis is finding water.  The LORD provides a solution, but also warns the Israelites to diligently listen to Him.  The author relates this story as being a test from the LORD.  God’s rescue now demands Israel’s obedience, lest they suffer as the Egyptians – whose own troubles began with bitter water.

The next crisis is food.  Read chapter 16 with as much care as the author took to convey it.  The way in which the LORD provides food, and the instructions surrounding it, seem to be important.  Read this remembering that the subject of the Bible is God, so consider how these details convey something about him.

Later, they head to a new camp, another water crisis emerges.  Now food and water are essential, and let’s not disregard the crisis.  You could keep a page in your journal to tally each new insult the Israelites hurl Moses’ way.  The author shines a bright light on their forgetfulness of all the LORD has done, and on how Moses absorbs their wrath.   Stash this away for when we get nearer to the promised land.

Our reading ends with an encounter with the Amalekites, and introduces a new character, whom you will hear much more about later.

Our verse for this week is Hebrews 11:22: “By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.”

Exodus 15 through 17.  Now let’s read it!

Yesterday we ended in the middle of the instructions for celebrating the Passover – a feast that remembers this night of deliverance.  Think about what it means for the LORD to command Israel what to remember about this event as it’s happening.  And the children of Israel, now held in esteem by the Egyptians, and aware that they are on the good side of all that is happening, and obey the LORD, just as Moses and Aaron have done.

All of this preparation moves against the backdrop of the final sign.  Compared to the exquisite detail and dialogue surrounding the preceding plagues, the events of this final night are conveyed in stilted, muted simplicity.  Don’t forget what’s happening here, and why it’s happening.  At the promised hour, there is death, and a cry, and a summons, and a proclamation, and a final plea from the conquered.

The only dialogue that the author records here is of the Egyptians, as the LORD has indeed proven His sovereignty over them and their god-king, just as He’d promised.

As you read chapter 13, sift through all of the words and actions that are related to memory, and specifically to memory of this event.  And there are seeds of future memory being planted: “When” the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, and “when” your son asks you, “what does this mean?”  The Israelites are being trained to comprehend this unique gift, given the tools of memory, in real time.

After departing, they turn south, seemingly in the wrong direction, but away from the mighty Philistines along the coast.  Listen closely for a touching detail that will remind you of another story of deliverance.  Then the plot turns one last time, as Pharaoh realizes what he’s done.  He  decides to take on the LORD one last time, and the LORD indulges him.

Our verse for this week is Hebrews 11:22: “By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.”

Exodus 13 through 14.  Now let’s read it!

Our reading begins with a storm, “such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.”  Put yourself in the position of the Egyptian people, trying to recount if there was ever a time like this, and wondering why this is all happening now.  Crops ruined, livestock killed, lives lost.

Yet “…the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses.”  You’re allowed to wonder at this recurring tension: the LORD causes Pharaoh’s heart to harden; yet Pharaoh shows his own ability to harden his heart.

As the LORD tightens the screws down on Pharaoh, Pharaoh’s word becomes untrustworthy, and his refusal to relent looks more unhinged from the reality facing his nation.  The LORD has proven what he promised: He is God, even of the heart of the most powerful monarch of his day.

An inversion occurs near the bottom of this spiral: Moses and the Israelites gain favor with the Egyptians, while Pharaoh’s anger only grows.  Pharaoh’s world is unraveling, yet he refuses to completely yield.  The final confrontation – where Pharaoh is promised that his own son will die if he doesn’t relent – even leaves Moses enraged.  Yet “he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.” 

Chapter 12 contains an interlude of instructions regarding the celebration of the Passover.  “This month,” the LORD tells Moses, “shall be for you the beginning of months.”  In the ancient world the calendar was not abstract, but was reset at the beginning of a nation, or counted from the beginning of a king’s reign.  The LORD is setting Israel’s calendar to zero: your story begins now.

Our verse for this week is Hebrews 11:22: “By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.”

Exodus chapters 10 through 12.  Now let’s read it!

We open today with the LORD’s answer to Moses’ plea: “How will Pharaoh listen to me?” Echoing the words of creation that He spoke at the burning bush, the LORD reminds Moses just Who it is that can control what men speak, what they hear, and even how they respond. So Moses and Aaron go before Pharaoh, speak the words they are given, and perform the signs they are commanded. Watch as the focus shifts from Moses’ apprehension to Pharaoh’s stubbornness.

Follow the rhythm as the people of Egypt suffer in an ever-more-tragic spiral. Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded… And the LORD did as Moses asked… But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, as the LORD had said.

Listen for some important themes through these first seven plagues. First, this is a battle not simply between Moses and Pharaoh but between the LORD and the gods of Egypt and the very might of Pharaoh himself. Pharaoh’s magicians can replicate the first few signs, but are forced out of the contest early on, even pleading with Pharaoh that “this is the finger of God.”

Second, listen for when the children of Israel are protected from the plagues, which means they too were affected by the first few. These were not just plagues, but signs of the LORD’s might.

Third, listen for indicators that the LORD is allowing Pharaoh to see that these are not just natural coincidences. “In the sight of Pharaoh…” Aaron struck the Nile. “Be pleased to command me when I am to plead for you,” Moses tells Pharaoh, allowing him to decide when the frogs are supernaturally removed. “Tomorrow this sign will happen,” Pharaoh is warned of the impending flies.

We end in the middle of chapter 9 to highlight the impact this was having in Egypt: “Then whoever feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses…” Remember the guarantees God made at the beginning of our reading today, and the promises all the way back in Genesis 12.

Our verse for this week is Hebrews 11:22: “By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.”

Exodus 7 through 9. Now let’s read it!

We return to the burning bush today as Moses searches for new reasons to resist God’s call.  His excuses seem reasonable on the surface, but God answers.  The Israelites might not believe he has actually encountered the LORD; so the LORD gives him two signs to perform before them. He is not eloquent, ‘slow of speech and tongue;’ so the LORD reminds him who it was that created the ability to speak, to hear, to see.

At a point, though, the LORD’s wrath was kindled.  Listen to what Moses says to spark it, and consider if God’s anger is just because of Moses’ persistence, or because of this particular argument.

Moses does, in fact, return to Egypt, with his brother as his mouthpiece.  In chapter 5, a cycle plays out that you’ll hear again: Moses does what the LORD commands, things get worse for a time, and Israel tells Moses he should have just stayed home.  So the LORD reassures Moses, reminding him that this is all part of a bigger plan.

Very careful readers of Genesis and Exodus will notice something peculiar when the LORD introduces Himself in chapter 6, verse 3.  We’ve put together a special note regarding this, which you can find at our website.  But you’ll definitely hear covenant language throughout, as God points backward to his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to show that he will be faithful to Moses here.

Our reading today ends with a typical Old Testament section break: a genealogical record, this time of Moses and Aaron.  It then recounts “the day when the LORD said to Moses, ‘I am the LORD; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you…”

Our verse for this week is Hebrews 11:8: By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Exodus chapters 4 through 6.  Now let’s read it!

A Special Note on Exodus 6:3

If you walked with us through Genesis, you know that ‘the LORD’ in all CAPS is the way our English Bibles represent the name of YHWH – the God of Abraham, and Creator of the world.  And very careful readers remember that the LORD used this name on two occasions – once with Abraham and once with Jacob.

However, in chapter 6, verse 3, God tells Moses, “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name ‘the LORD’ I did not make myself known to them.”   This is an apparent contradiction.  One solution has to do with the original Hebrew language, and how this might best be read as a rhetorical question, such as: “Did I not make myself known to them?”  This is one possibility that makes sense of the story and is faithful to the text.

One of our most fundamental goals at the Daily Reader is that we want you to trust the Bible you have in your hands.  However, we are engaged in dialogue not only with our English translations, but with the original Hebrew, and with all the translators who have labored to build the bridge between them.

This question, and many that we ask, are a matter of translation, not of faith.  The most important reassurance we can give is that you’re allowed to notice these things.  Asking questions doesn’t mean you lack faith.  Asking questions, with a sincere desire and openness to discover the answer, means you’re paying attention.  And our faith will be called on all the more when easy answers do not present themselves.

“Now, there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.”

The first two chapters of Exodus are masterful prologue, among the best in ancient literature. The plot speeds through the years since Joseph’s deathbed prophecy: “God will visit you, and bring you up out of this land…” It recounts how God caused the children of Israel to prosper, and how the Egyptians unsuccessfully tried to hold them down, leading to a disturbing final solution.

The pivot occurs at the end of chapter 2: “Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard…and God remembered…and God knew.” What follows is a burning bush, and a call, and a name, that will create a nation. Just breathe it in.

There are so many details to catch here, that I can only name a few. Notice how God rewards the midwives who skillfully – and deceptively – protect the Hebrew children. Consider whether the Egyptians had valid concerns about these foreigners. Pay attention to Moses’ carefully humble rebuttal of God’s call, and listen to how God not only reassures him, but gives him the first step – but only the first step – in the plan.

Careful readers will once again notice that the particular name of the LORD – Yahweh – is withheld until chapter 3, when the LORD speaks out of the bush, and recalls the covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is a similar revelation to that in Genesis 2, and might be a literary technique to emphasize the burning bush encounter. The reader knows that something incredibly important, and personal, is now occurring.

Our verse for this week is Hebrews 11:8: By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Exodus chapters 1 through 3. Now let’s read it!