Readings for today: Exodus 22-24
It’s both comforting and convicting to know God is with us. It is encouraging and sobering to know God is eternally faithful to walk by our side. He never leaves us nor forsakes us not even for a single moment. If we listen to Him and walk in obedience, He will bless us. If we ignore Him and walk in rebellion, He will discipline us. God is eternally consistent. There is no shadow or turning in Him. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So the words He speaks to Israel are just as appropriate for us today as they were for them back then. The ways He reveals Himself to His people back then are just as true for us today as they were for them.
“Now get yourselves ready. I’m sending my Angel ahead of you to guard you in your travels, to lead you to the place that I’ve prepared. Pay close attention to him. Obey him. Don’t go against him. He won’t put up with your rebellions because he’s acting on my authority. But if you obey him and do everything I tell you, I’ll be an enemy to your enemies, I’ll fight those who fight you. When my Angel goes ahead of you and leads you to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, I’ll clear the country of them. So don’t worship or serve their gods; don’t do anything they do because I’m going to wipe them right off the face of the Earth and smash their sacred phallic pillars to bits.” (Exodus 23:20-24 MSG) Can you imagine how comforting it must have been to Israel to know God would be “an enemy to their enemies” and would “fight those who fought them?” Especially after watching what God did to Pharaoh and Egypt? They must have felt invincible. Despite the many different tribes occupying the Promised Land and the challenge they would face driving them out, Israel must have felt such confidence knowing God would be on their side.
“I’ll send my Terror on ahead of you and throw those peoples you’re approaching into a panic. All you’ll see of your enemies is the backs of their necks. And I’ll send Despair on ahead of you. It will push the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites out of your way. I won’t get rid of them all at once lest the land grow up in weeds and the wild animals take over. Little by little I’ll get them out of there while you have a chance to get your crops going and make the land your own. I will make your borders stretch from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and from the Wilderness to the Euphrates River. I’m turning everyone living in that land over to you; go ahead and drive them out.” (Exodus 23:27-31 MSG) At the same time, God is faithful to not give Israel a quick or easy victory. “Little by little” God would drive them out. He knows Israel isn’t ready to exercise dominion over the land He’s giving them so He will give them an opportunities to practice along the way. It’s the principles of “to whom much is given, much is expected” and “to the one who is faithful with little, God will entrust them with much” that Jesus talks about in His parable of the talents. God knows our tendency to take things for granted. He knows how easy it is for us to become complacent so He will continue to challenge us and test us to refine our faith. This is what it means to have God with us.
God has always been and always will be “God with us.” He has been Emmanuel from eternity. His great desire is for all of us to be saved and fulfill the mandate He gave us at creation to “be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and exercise dominion over all He has made.” God created us in His image to serve as His vice-regents over all creation. He has never wavered from this commitment and is at work even now in your life and in my life to bring it to pass. Spend some time praying today and ask the Holy Spirit to make you more aware of God’s abiding presence in your life and then ask Him how you might respond in greater faithfulness to Him.
Readings for tomorrow: Exodus 25-28