1Feb/100

Week 5 Day 1 – The Art of Worship

Exodus 35:30-36:1

There are some observations that can be made from this passage.

1. An artistic expression was considered a gift of God’s Spirit. (At this point all the Christian artists of the world stand and rejoice!) Isn’t it interesting that in the heart of God’s process of developing a tangible vehicle through which He can communicate His nature to His people, God called upon artists to get the job done. That is, in my opinion, speaking as an artist who is a Christian, the chief purpose of art. Art exists to provide a window for mortal man to be transported beyond the calculations of raw numbers and the rationality of words, into a supra-rational place where concepts like beauty and truth can be explored in a tactile, experiential way. In the process of meditating on these ideals we can connect with God, the author and sustainer of beauty and truth itself.

That was a pretty esoteric paragraph, sorry. Here’s another way to look at it. When you see a great piece of art it causes you to think about the majesty of God, the ultimate creator of all things. Art is a vital part of the worship experience and should be readily utilized in both the individual and the group worship experience.

2. The skill was a divinely given gift. Many times the purpose and practice of art can be distorted. As with most other professions and vocations, when the motive of the task becomes self-serving the spark of the eternal is snuffed out and the work becomes profane. Art for art’s sake is profane. Business for money’s sake is profane. Sex for pleasure’s sake is profane. Yet, art for God’s sake, removing the ego of the artist, is divine. God gives gifts to His people. We all have them. They are gifts. We did not earn them, nor do we deserve them. God gave them to us to use for His glory. Art is no different. When an artist realizes that her gift is from God and she decides to dedicate the artistic process to the glory of God, great and beautiful things can happen.

If you are an artist, be encouraged. Many times art can get shoved aside in the church as a superfluous endeavor. This is not the truth. God wants you to use your gifts for Him to communicate deep truths about simple beauty. Art is the language that communicates beyond cultural boundaries. The next time you pick up your brush or pencil, remember that you are an artistic ambassador for the Kingdom of God!

If you are not an artist, remember two things. First remember that God has given you an equally wonderful gift to be used to edify His body. Second, remember to encourage the artists in your community to use their gifts to bring glory to God and to help others connect with God’s presence.

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29Jan/100

Week 4 Day 5 – The Power of Presence

Exodus 33:1-34:35

There are two observations from today’s reading:

1. It was possible for the people to have gone on with God’s plan without God present. In the beginning of chapter 33 God was so displeased with the people’s unfaithfulness to Him that He threatened to withdraw His presence. Yet, He told Moses to take the people into the Promised Land.

Think about the implications of this for our lives. How many times have we forged ahead with plans that seemed to be from God, yet did it in a way that was empowered by our own flesh and desire? This is an easy trap to fall into, especially for churches and Christian organizations. We are so comfortable worshipping at the golden calf of human ingenuity and corporate success strategies that we forget that the only thing that truly matters is whether or not we are standing in the Presence of God. It would do us good to stop and make sure that we have soaked in God’s presence, asked for HIS guidance, and patiently waited for HIM to move the cloud before we move out and do something for His Kingdom.

2. The true presence of God affects radical change in the person beholding it. When Moses came down from the presence of God, his face was shining. He had been altered by the Glory of God in a way that was noticeable to everyone around him. The Apostle Paul told the Corinthians,

“But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And If we want to be changed, it does not happen by trying harder to bwe, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor. 3:16-18) e a better person. We do not conform our external behavior to be more like Jesus. No, these things cannot work because they are externally focused and based on human will power. It would be like trying to clean out a dirty milk jug by scrubbing the outside of it only. The only power for transformation is the Presence of God.

We need to create space in our lives each day to humbly come before God and, through prayer, Bible study, and meditation, open ourselves to His presence and ask Him to fill us and clean us from the inside out. When we leave that “tent of meeting” our faces will shine with the joy and the hope of the Lord and will be a beacon of hope to the world around us.

Tap into the power of God’s transforming presence today.

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28Jan/102

Week 4 Day 4 – Broad Shoulders Required

Exodus 28: 36-43

The role of the priest was intense. These men were chosen by God to represent the people of Israel. They were God’s go-betweens to the people because the people were not holy enough to approach the holiness of God. The priests spent their entire life making sure that they were clean enough to go into the Holy Place. If they were not clean, they would taint the whole place, disrupting the worship of God, and possibly even getting themselves struck dead by God’s wrath. The run-of -the-mill priest had to stay squeaky clean just so he could keep the lamp burning and refresh the show bread. Even with that level of holiness, they were still not clean enough to enter the Most Holy Place. As we learned yesterday, only the High Priest could go into that awesome chamber, and then only once a year.

Why did God make it so difficult to enter His presence? Why did He demand so much from His people? For crying out loud, the people weren’t even allowed to come to God; they had to go through a priest. Why is that? There are a couple of reasons: 1) the people had rejected God’s presence on the mountain and were so spiritually immature that they needed this physical system to be able to conceive of God, 2) God was demonstrating to the people (and to us) how seriously He takes holiness.

God is a holy God. He is absolute perfection and cannot tolerate anything less than perfection. It’s not that He doesn’t want it around, its that imperfection can’t withstand the presence of the absolute; it gets blown away! In a sense, God was, out of compassion, protecting His people because He knew they weren’t ready to handle absolute truth.

So what does this have to do with us? There are two important points for Christians to understand when it comes to the role of the priest.

We have a perfect High Priest. Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the perfect High Priest who entered into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled His own blood in that awesome chamber. Since he is the Son of God, the perfect Lamb, and the perfect priest, His sacrifice was a once for all sacrifice that atoned for the sins of the world, once and for all. He tore down the curtain of separation between God and man, and being the bread of Presence and the giver of the Spirit, He is our mediator between man and God.
We are all priests. 1 Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” No longer are we the common man standing outside in the courtyard, hoping that the priest is clean enough to get our sins forgiven. We are the priests. We can enter into the Holy Place and interact with the Spirit and the Word, and, in the ultimate act of grace, the High Priest throws back the curtain for us, revealing the Presence of the Almighty.

Now that you know that you are a priest, what does that mean? Does that mean that God no longer cares about holiness, or has somehow become sin-tolerant? Not at all. God still expects absolute holiness from His priests (from you).

There are two kinds of holiness at work here:

Positional Holiness: Because of the blood of Jesus, your sins are paid for and you are considered clean and worthy to stand in the presence of God. That is grace, it was a gift, you didn’t do anything to get to that place, nor could you have had you tried.

Relational Holiness: For you to be able to stand in the presence of God and look Him in the face and receive His full glory, you need to be clean on the inside. Imperfection still cannot withstand absolute perfection. It is like a small child who has just lied to his parents or secretly disobeyed. That child cannot look her parent in the eye. Why? Because she knows she has violated the relationship. Not until the sin is confessed and the relationship restored can there be real communication between parent and child. The same is true with our relationship with God. If we are cherishing sin in our heart, we will not be able to stand before our Holy God. Not because He is pointing the finger and condemning, but because we want to hide our sin from His holiness.

What is keeping you from standing fully in the presence of God, naked and unashamed? Remember that God invites you to come to Him. The blood of Jesus is eternally sprinkled all over the Most Holy Place while the Spirit and the Son stand, holding open the curtain inviting you to come. Dump the sin and the shame that is holding you back and come bask in the presence of holiness.

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27Jan/100

Week 4 Day 3 – The Architecture of Glory

Exodus 25:1-27:19

You may be thinking, "why in the world did we devote an entire day to studying some verbal blueprints for a tent that was used to worship God in an outdated, Old Testament system? Aren’t we Christians who are free from the Law and free to worship God in Spirit and Truth, no longer bound by the physical space of a place?" True, we are. Jesus said so in John 4. However, as we will see throughout the study of Exodus and Leviticus, if we will pay attention to the tabernacle we can learn some important lessons that may have direct impact on our experience of God today.

First, we need to understand that God has given the Christian reader of the Old Testament a "decoder ring" to help us make sense out of the intricate details of the tabernacle. This decoder ring is the letter to the Hebrews. Hebrews 9-10 especially explain that God intentionally had Moses construct this physical space called the Tabernacle in order to give a concrete analogy to the cosmic work that Jesus would ultimately do for us in the Spiritual realm. The writer of Hebrews says,

"When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; He entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence." (Hebrews 9:11, 24)

For our purposes today, we need to focus in on the fact that, in some way, the tabernacle represented a certain reality about 1) the presence of God, and 2) how a human being could come into the presence of God.

There were three basic sections to the temple: the outer court where the altar of burnt sacrifice and the basin of washing was placed, the Holy Place where the lampstand and the table were placed, and the Most Holy Place (aka Holy of Holies) where the ark of the covenant was placed behind the thick curtain.

The outer court. The people were allowed into this area. Here they brought their sacrifices to be slaughtered and burnt on the altar to pay for their sins. (We’ll talk more about that bloodbath in Leviticus).

The Holy Place. Only the priests were allowed into this rectangular room. After having cleansed themselves in the basin of water just outside the door, the priests were allowed in the Holy Place where they could keep the flames of the lampstand burning and make sure the Bread of Presence was nice and fresh.

The Most Holy Place. Behind a very thick embroidered curtain was the ark of the covenant -- the place that represented the very presence of God Himself. No one was allowed in this room except one man, the High Priest. He was only allowed in this room one day a year, on the Day of Atonement. On that fearsome day, the High Priest would stick his arm in behind the curtain, wave a censor of incense around until the chamber was filled with a thick smoke so that he wouldn’t be able to really see the place of God, then he would step in and sprinkle the room with the blood of a perfect lamb to pay for the sins of the entire nation that year. If he touched the ark, he would die.

As New Testament Christians we know that Jesus is our High Priest and that when He died the curtain to the Holy of Holies was torn in two, allowing all people access into the presence of God. And yet, I think we need to be aware that coming into the presence of God is not as flippant or as easy as we sometimes make it out to be. Perhaps if we look at the three sections of the tabernacle as three phases that we need to go through in order to fully come into God’s presence it would enhance our experience of worship. These three phases can be applied both to your personal Quiet Worship of God and to a worship gathering.

Phase One: Care and Share OR A Messy Mash of Blood and Guts
When we begin to come into God’s presence we need to be aware of the fact that we are carrying tons of baggage with us that we have acquired during the battle of living in this dark world. We have sins that we have committed that are weighing down our conscience and causing interference in our relationship with God and with others. We have wounds that have been inflicted on us and wounds we have inflicted on others. We have fears, and worries, and pride, envy, arrogance, etc, etc. When we gather together we need to dump all the baggage. In this phase of a worship gathering it is good to spend time talking to one another and sharing prayer requests, confessing sins, and repairing damaged relationships. We need to take our baggage and our own human pride and slit its throat, strike a match of surrender, and watch it all get consumed in the fires of selfless sacrifice. Then we can be cleansed in the basin of God’s grace and forgiveness and walk into the next room.

Phase Two: Prayer and Prepare OR The Spirit and the Word
In the Holy Place there were two things: the lampstand with seven lamps and the table on which was set the bread of Presence. In our worship experience these two things must be present before the full presence of God can be entered and experienced. On the one hand we have the 7-flamed lampstand. Throughout scripture (especially in Revelation) the Holy Spirit is described as a fire and as the sevenfold Spirit. In our worship we must be open and aware of the fact that it is only in the supra-rational power of the Holy Spirit that we can even be standing in God’s Presence. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives that allows us to love each other, to understand God’s Word, and to love God. The Spirit is like a flame. He flickers and dances and gives off energy, but He can’t be touched. He is Spirit. He is the power, the energy, and the breath of God for our lives.

The second thing in the room is the Bread of Presence. Jesus said that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Jesus also said that He was the bread of life. John said that Jesus was the Word that became flesh. So, this Bread of Presence in our worship experience is the concrete, objective Word of God that was revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. We have access to this objective revelation of God’s Word through the study of the Bible. More simply put, the study of the Bible is a vital part of the worship experience.

There is a wonderful balancing act going on in this room. On the one hand you have the pure energy of the free flowing Spirit. On the other hand you have the objective revelation of the physical Word of God. To truly experience God’s presence in Worship we need to keep these two elements in balance. We are energized by the Spirit and we are instructed by the Word. We can’t have one without the other. In our worship gatherings we need to study the Bible intensely and let the Spirit do with that in us what He will.

Phase Three: Stare OR Stand In Awe and Focus completely on God
Now that we have dumped our baggage so that we aren’t focused on ourselves, and have been further focused by the objective Word and the illuminating Spirit, we can humbly, selflessly, come into the presence of God. In this place it is all about Him. Here is where we give praise and adoration as we sing out, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come." In this third phase of worship we give to God and tell Him how much we love Him. It’s all about Him; the focus should never be on us. And then, just like Moses, when he would meet with God on the mountain or in the Tent, the radiance of God will ignite our radiance and we will shine before men.

A Worship Challenge. Many times we distort the worship experience and get stuck in either phase one or phase two. Some of us come to worship and make it all about us. "This is my pain today, pray for me." That’s great in phase one. Bring your pain; share your burdens with your brothers and sisters in the church, prayer for one another. But then, dump it! Yet we often carry this self-focus into the next two phases and continue to have a spirit that says, "This is what I think the Bible means. This is what MY experience of God is. This is how I have given my life to God and how God has worked in MY life." While it is God talk, it is not God focused. It still brings all eyes in the room back to the person. In phase three our language and our behavior should be God focused. We are talking to Him about Him. We are offering up praise and glory to Him and Him alone. This is a supra-rational, experiential place where all eyes are focused on the glory and majesty of God and God alone. So, the next time you enter into a worship circle, see if following this progression enhances your true experience of the presence of God.

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26Jan/100

Week 4 Day 2 – Now Fear This

Exodus 20:18-21

In the introduction to this week’s devotional we discussed the fact that friendship with God was the goal of spiritual formation. While this is definitely true, our reading today demonstrates for us a necessary precaution involved in this teaching. For some of us, we may have read the introduction regarding the law and thought, “cool! God is my buddy, rules are optional, and I can cruise through life.” WRONG ANSWER! Remember the funnel. We must first pass through the narrow end of the funnel before we can truly experience friendship with God.

One of the reasons that we may slip into this distortion of truth is due to the fact that our culture has a distorted view of friendship. Let’s be honest with ourselves; why do we have friends? Or, a better question, how do we choose friends? We choose friends based upon whether or not a person will make US feel good, or will meet a particular need in OUR lives. So, in essence, we are selfish, consumerist friendship seekers. If a friend starts getting a little weird or a little “needy” what do we typically do? We back off. We don’t want to be dragged down.

This is not the kind of friendship that God desires to have with us. A fair-weather friend, a lukewarm friend, a what-can-I-get-out-of-you friend; these are the things that makes God sick (Rev. 3:16) God doesn’t love us that way. God never gives up on us, no matter how much we disappoint Him or are “needy.”

Let’s reconnect to the analogy of childrearing for a moment. When a parent treats a little child like an equal, giving them unlimited freedom with no consequences, the child becomes distorted and their natural self-centeredness becomes engrained in their psyche. A child who has been super-indulged has not had the opportunity to learn the concept of right and wrong. Their conscience has not been trained in morality and they can grow up to become a self-indulgent, and ultimately a self-destructive adult.

The same danger lies in the process of Spiritual Formation. If we try to jump too quickly into a “buddy” relationship with God, we may be tempted to devalue His holiness and absolute power. True friendship with God is a self-less love that is completely God-focused and asks, “what can I do for God,” not, “what can God do for me.”

As the infantile children of Israel stood before the mountain of God, Moses reminded them of this important truth. “God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”

In the beginning of a child’s life it is the fear of reproof that keeps their hand out of the cookie jar. They know that Dad is just and fair and will swat the hand every time. This is a healthy thing. Eventually, as the heart matures, the child can say, “No, I won’t take the cookie because it will spoil my appetite and it will not be healthy.” At that point there is no longer a need for the law or for fear. Now fear is replaced by a love for the truth, and the moral behavior is authentic and natural.

Remember the formula “fear precedes love”. We cannot truly love God until we truly fear Him. He is the Almighty, El-Shaddai, the creator and destroyer of all things. He is holy and has every right to snuff out life. Until you fear this awesomeness to the core of your bones, you will not be able to grasp the depth of His love and the immeasurable depth of grace. When we realize the lengths to which God has made it possible for us to know Him and become His friend, then we will be willing to go through the fire of the spiritual disciplines, be stripped of self, and step into the full friendship of God.
Let us fear God today!

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25Jan/100

Week 4 Day 1 – What is It?

Exodus 16:1-36

It’s Monday morning. What is occupying your mind this morning? If you are like millions of other Americans you are facing another week of the rat-race. You have bills to pay, mouths to feed, bosses and/or clients to please, deadlines to keep, etc. And for what? So you can “survive.” We plan out our weeks so that we can earn enough money to have the things we need. After all, isn’t it our job to provide for our families?

Is there anything wrong with providing for one’s family? No. However, there is something wrong when we are consumed with the notion that it is up to us -- our ingenuity and hard work – to provide the basic needs for our family. Here is where we can learn a valuable lesson from today’s reading. Who provided for the Israelites? How did He provide for them? God gave the people all that they needed to survive in the desert.

God provided a daily portion of bread and meat for His people. The key word to this lesson is DAILY. If the people tried to hoard the bread for the next day it would rot overnight. It was a DAILY provision. That meant that every night they would go to bed with a full stomach, but with nothing on their shelves that would guarantee food for tomorrow. Each morning they would wake up hungry and have to trust that God would have delivered the bread that they needed...FOR THAT DAY.

How do we live? Most of us are living and earning money in order to do what...SAVE IT. What are we saving it for? For a rainy day. We save it for retirement...that won’t happen for 40 years! We work extra hard today, taking away precious time with our children, our friends, our church, our ministry, so that we can have something to eat tomorrow. Hmmm.... Let’s turn to see what
Jesus said about tomorrow in Matthew 6:33-34,

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

In that same chapter Jesus said, in His model prayer,

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

This is one of the biggest battles that we face. How can we live in today, when everything in our culture tells us that we need to save up for tomorrow?

The question for you today is this, “Are you more focused on worrying about storing up for living in this temporary world tomorrow than you are focused on what God wants you to do for His eternal Kingdom today?”

Meditate on this Proverb throughout your day.

7 “Two things I ask of you, O LORD;
do not refuse me before I die:
8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.
(Proverbs 30:7-9)

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22Jan/100

Week 3 Day 5 – Blood on the Doorposts

Exodus 12:1-42

This story, called the Passover is one of the most foundational stories for both the Jewish and the Christian identity. While the story is real, meaning it literally happened, there is also deep symbolism and allegory that can apply directly to our lives.

The people of Israel were lost in the darkness of slavery. It is true that they were inheritors of the covenant that the God “out there” (refer to Wednesday’s devotional) made with Abraham, yet their experiential reality was that of being surrounded by the pagan gods of Egypt. They were cut off from their God, they were cut off from their land, they were cut off from their own identity, and they were bound by the chains of slavery. That is how we were at the beginning of our spiritual journeys. We were cut off from God, we were cut off from healthy relationships, and we were in bondage to our own desires, addictions, self-deception and self-destructive patterns.

Perhaps you are still in that dark place of slavery today. If you feel alone and cut off from truth and life, if you are not experiencing a healing and meaningful relationship with God and others, then perhaps today could be the day for your own “Exodus” to begin.

While God’s people were wallowing in slavery, He had not forgotten them. He called to a man named Moses and revealed Himself to Moses as Yahweh; the God who is present. Yahweh sent Moses into the darkness to confront the powers that held His people in bondage, to demonstrate God’s supremacy over all humanly constructed powers and religions, and to display his compassion for His people.
Then God instructed the people to take a perfect lamb, to kill it, and to take its blood and smear it on the door posts of their house. When the death angel saw the blood of the lamb it would recognize the sacrifice that had been made and the faith that was demonstrated in the placing of the blood on the doorposts, and it would pass over the house. The next morning the people would be free.

1400 years later God sent His Son out into the wilderness and told Him to head into the darkness of Israel where the people were being held in slavery to their own self-righteousness, self-deception, and sin. Jesus was another Moses. He was sent to confront the powers of darkness and lead God’s people into freedom. When Jesus entered into the region, John the Baptist took one look at Him and proclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world.” Not only was Jesus another powerful prophet like Moses, He was also the lamb itself. By the shedding of His blood freedom from death and slavery was possible.

Remember, however, that it wasn’t just the shedding of the blood that set the Israelites free, it was the faith behind placing the blood on the doorposts that demonstrated to the death angel that this family was to be spared. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who became the human prophet of God to proclaim God’s truth to the world. He also became the lamb of God to use His own blood to pay for the sins of the world. God offers to us the opportunity to be free from bondage, to experience the fullness of life with Him that we were created to experience. Yet, we cannot know this freedom unless we “place the blood on our doorposts.” In other words, unless we believe that Jesus’ sacrifice is able to save us, and unless we proclaim to the world that we have placed our trust in the person and the sacrifice of Jesus, we will still be stuck in the darkness. But if we say “yes” to Jesus’ gift of salvation -- place the blood on the doorposts -- then we can walk with the Israelites, cross the Red Sea, and step into the journey of Spiritual Life and Growth.

Now, if you have already stepped into that life you may be tempted to dismiss this devotional as not pertaining to you. Not so. Remember that God instructed the people to observe the Passover feast for years to come. Why? He knew that we have the tendency to forget. As we will see in the rest of the Old Testament story, the people continually battled with their own sin and the threat of being enslaved. As Christians we must never lose sight of the fact that the blood of Jesus that once set us free is still on our door posts. It is only through Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit that we can walk in freedom each day. Remember the Passover...never forget.

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21Jan/100

Week 3 Day 4 – Clash of the Titans

Exodus 6:28-10:29

From our perspective, the plagues of Egypt may seem like a horific natural disaster. Or, more accurately, a horrific sequence of one natural disaster after another. The Nile River is polluted by the red sand of Ethiopia, which drives out the frogs, which causes an outbreak if insects, infection, disease, and pestilence that affect the crops, the livestock, and humans.

That is bad enough in itself. Now, just try to imagine how you would feel if each one of the waves of plagues that flooded over you represented one of your gods? The divine beings that you have spent your life worshipping are now turning on you and wreaking havoc among your people.

For the Egyptians, this wasn’t just a natural disaster. This was a theological coup. This was a direct attack against the very fabric of the universe as they understood it.

The message was not just for the Eyptians. The Israelites, who had spent 400 years enslaved to the Egyptians and their gods, were watching. These Israelites had been told about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but had never seen him in action. If Moses was going to lead these slaves into freedom, in the name of Yaweh, then they had to know that He was real, and, more importantly, that He was more powerful than the Gods of Egypt.

Even more importantly, He had to demonstrate to the Israelites that the Gods of Egypt weren’t gods at all. They were man-made ideas based on created things. We call those idols.

Here’s the main thought for today:

God is bigger than anything that man can create.

Most of human culture is based upon man’s desire to build something in his own image and then worship it. The Egyptians did not worship the creator-God, they worshipped the creation (the river, the frogs, etc.) and gave a god-status to it. The one true, non-created, God will not stand for this. Ask yourself today, “What am I worshipping in my life other than the one true God?” Whatever it is, get rid of it before the river rises!

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20Jan/100

Week 3 Day 3 – What’s in a Name?

Exodus 5:22-6:8

In order to grasp the depth of this passage it is important to define some terms. To Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God revealed Himself as El-Shaddai. Read this definition of that Hebrew word. I am printing the actual Strong’s Enhanced Dictionary listing so that we do not run the risk of reading too much into the meaning of the word.

7703 [shadad /shaw·dad/] 58 occurrences; AV translates as “spoil” 30 times, “spoiler” 11 times, “waste” eight times, “destroy” twice, “robbers” twice, and translated miscellaneously five times. 1 to deal violently with, despoil, devastate, ruin, destroy, spoil. 1a1 to violently destroy, devastate, despoil, assail. 1a2 devastator, despoiler 1b to be utterly ruined. 1c 1c1 to assault. 1c2 to devastate. 1d to be devastated. 1e to violently destroy. 1f to be devastated.1

7706 [Shadday /shad·dah·ee/] 48 occurrences; AV translates as “Almighty” 48 times. 1 almighty, most powerful. 1a Shaddai, the Almighty (of God).2

El means God. When you put El in front of Shaddai, you get the name of God; El-Shaddai. In other words, God presented himself to Abraham as “God, the mighty, powerful destroyer.” Take a few minutes and meditate on that definition. How do you feel about God in light of His name, El-Shaddai?

Now look at the definition for the word LORD.

I. is given Ex 3:12–15 as the name of the God who revealed Himself to Moses at Horeb, and is explained thus: I shall be with thee (v 12), which is then implied in I shall be the one who will be it v 14a (i.e. with thee v 12) and then compressed into v 14b (i.e. with thee v 12), which then is given in the nominal form He who will be it v 15 (i.e. with thee v 12). Other interpretations are: I am he who I am, i.e. it is no concern of yours; I am, (this is my name), inasmuch as I am; I am who I am, he who is essentially unnameable, inexplicable.3

Yahweh (translated LORD in the NIV) means, the God who is and the God who will be with you. Another way to say it is “the God who is present.”

This was a radical concept to the ancient mind. In the ancient world the concept of God was that of a fierce being who lived on top of a mountain somewhere and was in charge of making the crops grow and would hurl thunder bolts at mortals that displeased him. God was “up there” and “out there.”

At this point we must stop and discuss a fundamental point about the nature of God. God always meets us where we are and then takes us to the place we need to be, in the right timing. I believe that God presented Himself to Abraham as El-Shaddai because that was the default understanding of God that Abraham was raised with back in Ur. In order for Abraham to recognize God as God, God had to use a name that Abraham could grasp. Then God took Abraham one step further into truth; God -- the “destroyer” -- made a loving promise to bless Abraham’s descendents. That was a radical shift in man’s idea of God. All the other gods of the world couldn’t care less about mortals. The Baals, as they were called, were wrapped up in their own agenda of fornicating with the goddesses and fighting with the underworld. Humans were insignificant “accidents” that were nothing more than pawns in the cosmos. Now, with Abraham, El-Shaddai broke the mold and gave value to the mortal. And yet, he was still “out there” and something to be feared.

In Moses’ encounter we see a new step towards a deeper understanding and a further revelation of the true nature of God. The God who is “out there” now refers to Himself as Yaweh. In so doing He said to Moses, “Moses, I am not just out there or up on some high mountain. I am what I am. I am the giver and sustainer of life. I am present with you. Not only am I with you, I am for you. I am welcoming you to come into my presence and have a relationship with me. I will be your ‘present God’ and you will be my people.” With this pronouncement the old theological paradigm was shattered. God told Moses that He was there for Him, walking with Him, guiding and protecting Him. God was now “in here”.

Meditate on that definition of the ‘present God” for a moment.

So, what’s the point? All of us must pass through these levels of understanding that the people of Israel had to pass. Unfortunately, for various reasons, many of us are stuck in an El-Shaddai perspective of God. God is nothing but a big and powerful destroyer; a force to be feared; a perfection that can never be achieved. He is so far away that we cannot know Him, so He might as well not exist as far as my everyday life is concerned. The truly sad reality is that many of us learned this perception of God through “Christian” religious institutions.

One of the fundamental mile markers on the journey of Spiritual formation that we must pass is to join with Moses and meet the God who is present. Yahweh is the God who made you, who loves you, who wants your best, and who desires to guide and protect you like a loving Father and a caring Shepherd. Just say those words over in your mind...”God is with me” “God is for me, not against me.”
As we study the entire Bible we will see that this “progressive revelation” of the God who is “out there” to the God who is “in here” will culminate in the person of Jesus. Jesus referred to Himself as “I AM.” In other words, Jesus said that His name was Yahweh. In the person of Jesus Christ, the God who is “out there” (El-Shaddai) revealed Himself as Immanuel, God with us, Yahweh, the God who is “in here.”

Where are you today? Is God still “out there”, a cold and meaningless, somewhat scary notion? Or, is God “in here” through the person of Jesus Christ, giving meaning and purpose to your life?

Remember that God is with you today.

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Tagged as: exodus, Jesus, Spiritual Formation, The Bible in A Year, yaweh No Comments

19Jan/100

Week 3 Day 2 – To Obey or Not Obey?

Exodus 1:1-22

A friend of mine recently returned from a short term missions trip to a communist country. It was almost surreal to hear her description of the state of affairs for the Christians in that place. As in most communist countries, it is strictly forbidden for an individual to mention the name of God or Jesus or to hold religious meetings outside of the state-sanctioned church. To do so meant certain imprisonment. Yet, the state-sanctioned church does not preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and is under the authority and control of an atheistic system.

This oppressive communist system places the follower of Jesus in a precarious situation. To meet or not to meet, that is the question. To meet would be to break the law. To not meet would mean to deny one of the fundamental purposes and sources of life for the church. Yet, to meet would be breaking the law and violating the New Testament’s encouragement to obey the human government under whose authority God has placed you. (1 Peter 2:13-17) What should a Christian do?

Shiphrah and Puah have some answers for us. These midwives were faced with the same dilemma. Should they obey the Pharaoh, or should they disobey the Pharaoh? Sometimes the right thing to do is to disobey. When the human political system is upholding a value that contradicts the value system of the Kingdom of Heaven then it is time for the child of God to break the law.

This scenario may seem a distant abstraction to those of us who are fat and complacent in our religious freedom, but it is not as far away as we may think. In the not too distant past a young, courageous black woman named Rosa Parks defied the laws of her state and refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white person. Her disobedience led to a wave of civil disobedience led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sometimes unjust systems require radical acts in order to be reformed.

This scenario may not be too far off in the future either. The United States was founded on religious freedom, yet, as the polar extremes of radical, fundamentalist religious factions increasingly entrench themselves and lob verbal and literal bombs at one another, the skeptical world looks on in disdain. It is very possible that the non-religious world, out of fear and self-protection, and in an attempt to gain peace, may target religion itself as the enemy of peace and make it very difficult for anyone who claims to speak for or about God to continue in this freedom. Even those who understand the danger of the extremists and proclaim the peace of Jesus will be lumped into the “religious threat” and targeted as an enemy of the state.

What then? If such a time ever came about in America, the church could find itself in a similar situation as that of the church in communist Asia. What would you do? Would you be willing to give up your job in order to obey Jesus? Would you be willing to be imprisoned, tortured, or even killed in order to not violate the principles of the Kingdom of God? I am not trying to be an alarmist. However, these questions are everyday realities for many Christians in other countries this very day. It could happen in our lifetime. If it does, will we be ready to obey God, no matter the cost?

As Christians we must remember that human political systems are not our home. We are not Americans, or Russians, or Chinese. We are not black, or white, or Asian. We are followers of Jesus. We are a universal church that is united under the leadership of Jesus Christ, the King of all Kings, and we are citizens of the eternal Kingdom of God.

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