Grace Church Teaching

When we feel like God isn’t coming through for us on our terms, we tend to fall back to sin that feels comfortable to us. In the same way that the Israelites revert to creating something tangible to worship, we create our own gods in times when we feel disoriented. However, what would it look like if we stopped ourselves from reverting to our cyclical sin and instead reflected on God’s kindness to us? What if we reacted out of obedience rather than disregard? As we look at Exodus 32, let it serve as a reminder to walk in faithful obedience not out of duty but because of His kindness to us.

Obeying God’s commands produces freedom, not bondage, and brings life, not death; they are refreshing to the soul and give joy to those who follow Him. As we walk in obedience to Him and surrender to His direction and guidance, we are able to love others well—even our enemies.

The Law and the Heart

Sabbath: Rest & Remember

As we continue to walk through the book of Exodus, we continue to be reminded of the truth that we are broken in the same ways as the Israelites. While we may not be worshiping idols in the same shape or form, we choose our own functional gods and idols to fuel our own desires every day.

In Exodus 19:1-25, God shows fierce kindness in the way He delivers His people and draws them into a relationship with Him. Despite our brokenness, God wants to draw us to Him in the same way. Only when we recognize our need for Him can we fully recognize His great mercy in delivering us.

Throughout our lives, God continually shows us our need for Him by putting us in situations that challenge our control, and our response to uncertainty reveals the condition of our faith. As the evil in the world continues to remind us that we are not in control, God’s authority to judge grows more evident, and He receives glory through both judgment and salvation.

Children inherently look to their fathers as an example of how to live life. Similarly, as Christians we must look to our heavenly Father and imitate the example He provides through Jesus. God loves us so abundantly that He sent His only Son to live out life and sacrifice Himself for our sins. We are called to display this same sacrificing love to those around us. As believers, we must learn to not be deceived by the false glory of the world and recognize that Christ is the only true source of satisfaction and truth for us. All of our worldly idols will eventually disappoint us. It is an everyday task to recognize the seriousness of sin and know that God will hold us accountable for the sin we choose not to turn away from.

Because we serve a benevolent, kind, and all-wise King, justice is served in His sovereignty and perfection. We are freed from carrying the weight of this broken world because He has already stepped in to make it right on our behalf. Trusting in Him as the perfect Lamb of God brings salvation and deliverance from sin.

We often buy into the idea of our own personal sovereignty rather than acknowledging the only Sovereign. Our culture has created a narrative with us at the center of everything. Instead of trusting in a God whose character does not change, we attempt to trust in our wavering abilities and unstable emotions and character.

Through the obedience of Moses and Aaron, we are reminded that obeying God does not guarantee that things will get easier for us. We trust in a God who is sovereign and bigger than short-term suffering; His plans exceed our momentary affliction.

In Exodus 3, God reveals Himself to Moses in the midst of obscurity. Although Moses’ circumstances are seemingly bleak, God asserts Himself as bigger than the moment while at the same time personally engaged with Moses’ life. Although the timeline of Moses’ life appears to be a lot of waiting, God has been actively working in the background.

Often we find ourselves in seasons where we feel far from the work that God is doing. In Exodus 2, Moses’ circumstances leave him in a foreign land with a new family and far away from everything he had ever known. In what appears to be a season that lacks Kingdom work, we find that God is perfectly orchestrating and working through the intricate details of Moses’ life to bring redemption to His people.

Much like the cross is the sign of God’s faithfulness to us in the New Testament, the book of Exodus and the cry of God’s people in Egypt is God’s reminder to His people of His faithfulness in the Old Testament. He heard our cry—He rescued us. The story of Exodus paints a bigger picture of God’s sovereign work in the background, intricately folding each nation and people group into His redemptive plan.

When we encounter the Bible, we are encountering God. Through His Word, we are reproved, corrected, and trained in the way we should go; it defines and directs our lives. Will you listen to how God is speaking to you through His Word today or will you reject what He has exposed in you?