We have reduced the meaning of this verse to mean a simple swear word. It mean much much more than that. How many preachers preach of a God they do not really believe in and, hence, use His name vainly? How may of us cry out to God in anguish or frustration but really do [...]
Archive for the ‘Exodus’ Category
Exodus 20:7: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” Leave a comment
Ex 20:5: “Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;” Leave a comment
Bad habits, bad relationships, the fruit of sin, etc, are generally passed to the next generation. Why is God a jealous God? It is important to understand how the word “jealous” is used. Its use in Exodus 20:5 to describe God is different from how it is used to describe the sin of jealousy (Galatians [...]
Ex 20:13 Leave a comment
The verb used in this verse is best translated “to murder.” It is used 49 times in the Old Testament, and it is always used to describe premeditated murder. It is never used of animals, God, angels, or enemies in battle. So the commandment is not teaching that all killing is wrong; it is teaching [...]
Ex: 35:30-35 Leave a comment
And Moses said to the children of Israel, “See, the LORD has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and understanding, in knowledge and all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to [...]
Ex 20:4: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” Leave a comment
Idolatry is banned by the first commandment, whereas the second commandment prohibits worship of such images. Man can only approach God on God’s terms and there can be no mediation between God and man except that which is ordered by God. As Rushdoony wrote, The purpose of idols is to convey abstract concepts to simple [...]
Exodus 15:11 “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? Leave a comment
The holiness of God is often assigned a place among the moral attributes of the divine nature; yet, strictly speaking, it is not a single attribute, but rather a combination of all the moral attributes of God. If we consider this combination, this aggregation, of moral perfections, and gaze upon the glory radiating therefrom, we [...]
Ex 7:16: And thou shalt say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear. Leave a comment
It was sacrilege for Egypt to lay hands on God’s anointed. To lay godless hands on any man by word thought or deed is a sin. To impede the word, service, and ministry of God is a sacrilege. The sacrilege of persons thus is the violation or abuse of the priests and ministers of God [...]
Ex 20:8-11: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work…………..the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Leave a comment
God declared the word, “Let there be…” and all things were created. God’s rest is grounded in the perfection of His work, redemption, and re-creation. God’s rest is thus an expression of His sovereignty and of the absoluteness of His government. Man cannot govern absolutely any aspect of his life or world, but he can [...]
Ex 22:1: “If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.” Leave a comment
Here we find the elementary principle of restitution. Restitution means means returning the item stolen or destroyed or the equivalent value thereof, plus a fine equal in value to the thing stolen or destroyed. The restitution must be commensurate to the offense, and the penalty must also be commensurate to the offense (Ex 21:23-26). In [...]
Ex 13:9-13: Also you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt. Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove. Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed. And in all that I have said to you, be circumspect and make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth. Leave a comment
The people of the Sabbath are to be just and God-fearing; they are to bring rest, through their godly social order, even to foreigners in their midst. Animals and the land shall reap the benefit of the peaceful dominion established by the covenant race. The goal is to universalize the Sabbath and its meaning among [...]
Ex 23:14: “Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.” Leave a comment
(also, 23:17 and 34:23) It will be objected by some that these three feasts are decribed as “holy” convocations (Le 23:4) and are thus clearly esssentially worship. But is is a serious error to associate holiness with worship; worship in itself is not holy and can be blasphemy; holiness does not refer to worship but [...]
Ex 14:13: And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will show to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever. Leave a comment
If you are on the road you should be on–stand firm! The Lord will be there to help you.
Exodus Leave a comment
Ex 1:7: “And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abunduntantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.” God granted great fruitfulness to the Hebrew wives and the nation grew dramatically. The statement that “the land was filled with them” must be understood of Goshen. There is no [...]
Ex 1:1-6: Now these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt; each man and his household came with Jacob: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already. And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. Leave a comment
The enumeration of Jacobs family is to stress that, though no clear chronological data are given, what follows is the direct continuation of the Genesis story.
Exodus Leave a comment
Exodus is the book of redemption. Its first word, now, links it onto Genesis. Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy all begin with conjunctions also, making the Pentateuch one single book. Exodus begins with the expression “Now these are the names,” for redemption has to do with names–names written by grace into the book of God. The [...]
Ezek. 8:18. “Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them.” Leave a comment
Jonathan Edwards wrote: “Now God stands ready to pity you; this is a day of mercy; you may cry now with some encouragement of obtaining mercy. But when once the day of mercy is past, your most lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in vain; you will be wholly lost and thrown away [...]
Ex 1:8: Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. Leave a comment
He had no recognition of past history. The new king never knew Joseph and felt no indebtedness to him or his descendants. This is interesting to note since at one time Joseph was so well known that he was a hero and his body could not even be taken from the land. It is important [...]
Ex 2:23: Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. Leave a comment
The turning to God in desperate prayer is all too often not a last hope but a confession of no hope. A story is told of a terrified lady saying to the captain as the ship was buffeted by a terrible storm, Is there any hope Captain?” His reply was “Our only hope is God.” [...]
