SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/16/2015
10:59 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Israel at Sinai
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
20:11-12
Bible Reading &
Meditation: “11 “I gave them My
statutes and informed them of My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them,
he will live. 12 “Also I gave them My Sabbaths to be a sign between Me and
them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.”
We have so far seen a review by Ezekiel of Israel in
Egypt, and then their Exodus from Egypt and not we will look at them at Mt.
Sinai, and it may surprise you to learn that they were there for two
years. Here we have probably over two
million people living in tents around this mountain where the Lord was going to
give them His laws and His ordinances for them to live by. I would have to say that this was a bit of a
culture shock for the children of Israel as they have gone through much over
these last two plus years from being slaves living in an idol worshiping
country to be free and leaving that country through the miracles of ten plagues
that the Lord brought upon the nation of Egypt in order to free His people from
the slavery that they were in. This does
picture the salvation that Jesus Christ brought to all those who believe that
they are sinners, living as slaves to sin, and then the miracle of Christ’s
death on the cross came in order for those who believe and accept this miracle
that He did for us will be like the children of Israel, and come out of slavery
to a new life in Christ.
Israel’s time at Sinai was not all a time of wonderful
worship of the Lord who had just brought them here, but there were times when
the Lord’s anger burned against them because of the worship of a golden calf
that Aaron made, along with a party that included sexual things going on that
should not have been going on.
Dr. Wiersbe writes the following on the Sabbath day: “God gave them the Sabbath day (the seventh
day of the week) as a sign to remind them that they belonged to Him. By setting aside that one day each week to honor
the Lord, Israel witnessed to the other peoples that they were a special
nation, but they persisted in polluting the Sabbath and treating it like any
other day (vv. 13, 16, 20).”
Now about the Law that the Lord gave Israel while there
it was more than just a “religious” law, but also governed civic
responsibilities, how to maintain the courts and making judges, things that we
as a country had our laws based on, but are swiftly going away just as they did
in Israel, and we can see how they ended up
We see that those who obeyed the law “lived” and we went
over that in an earlier SD as this speaks of physical life. Their law, for instance said that if you
killed someone by design you would die, and there were other offences that
brought the death sentence too, so when people disobeyed the lost their
physical life.
As we look at different passages in the New Testament we
will find out that no one can be saved by keeping the law, for one thing that
would be impossible because we are born sinners, and for another if we have
wrong thoughts as Jesus said we are just as guilty as if we committed the
crime. This is the reason that God sent
His Son into the world who was God and Man so that He was able to keep the
whole law and then die in our place so that when God looks at those who have
accepted His forgiveness will see Jesus instead of us.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Ezekiel was
telling these things to the exiles to remind them of what the Lord had done for
them and I too need to be reminded.
Partaking of the Lord’s Table is so we can be reminded of what Christ
has done for me and I truly need reminders in my life, especially of the things
that He has done for me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
and strength, and to remember how much the Lord loves me.
Memory verses for the
week: 2 Peter 1:5-8.
5 Now for this very reason
also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in
your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge self-control, and in
your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in
your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing,
they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘Eli, Eli Lama,
Sabachthani’?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/16/2015 11:32 AM
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