Reflections from February 20, 2011

God has led the Israelites to Mount Sinai, a significant location with respect to their relationship with Him. It also had a profound effect on the world and its effects are still being felt today.

God begins by saying to Moses in Exodus 19:5,
"Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine."

Can you imagine how Moses felt when he heard those words, "you shall be a special treasure"? The only analogy I can think of is if a father gathered his sons around him, and told the middle child the same thing. The others would be devastated! Of course, God's other creations that weren't Jewish were not around at that time, so they might not have heard about this. but it does tell us today, that God has a special connection with the Jews and with Israel, a covenant that we need to recognize and honor.


God spoke directly with Moses while he was on Mount Sinai. While he was up there, God delivered to Moses the Ten Commandments. These commandments formed the foundation for all of God's laws with Israel, and still serve as the basis for much of how we are to obey God today. The first four deal with how we serve God and what our relationship is with Him. The fifth separates commandments regarding the relationship with God and those dealing with relationships with others. Honoring our father and mother is smack dab in the middle.

While God was giving these commandments to Moses, all of Israel saw the thundering and lightening in the dark cloud atop of Mount Sinai, and they were afraid. And Moses told them in Exodus 20:20,
"Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin."

God's desire is not to give us laws, rules, and instructions solely to show us that He's in charge; but His desire is for us to have a clear understanding of how to worship Him, how to honor Him, and how to love Him. He may test us but it's because He has a deep love for us.

God began to put together the laws as based on the Ten Commandments, and regarding life and death matters of crime, He states in Exodus 21:23,
"you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe."

God's principles regarding the care for human life are fitting to our society today. We should look to the Scriptures for sanctity of life, personal injury and restitution and accomplish this according to God's laws. There's nothing in Scriptures that suggests that those who suffer personal injury should profit from this, nor should they receive awards for pain, suffering, fear, psychological stress, or other similar things. God believes in restitution for actual damages, but that appears to be all.

David sums up our reading today very well in Psalms 33:4, 5, 12:
"For the word of the Lord is right, And all His work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance."

We stand in awe of God because His purpose supersedes the counsel of nations. God blesses those nations that honor Him. By honoring God's rule and authority, nations today can have unbounded hope. He blesses nations that pursue righteousness and justice and make God their Lord.

Blessings to all