# 26 2025 Dev. Isa.20:6. “Trusting” Read all of chapter twenty first. We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think on and interact with. This is God’s Story. Do you believe that this may also be part of our story, in our time? All passages are taken from the NIV.

Isa.20: God said to Isaiah, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.”

Isaiah 20 continues the prophecy against Egypt and Cush. Here God directs Isaiah to model what will happen to Egypt and Cush. This is an example to Judah, Hezekiah and the people were depending on Egypt to protect them from the Assyrians, not the Lord their God. But we take this prophecy from ch.19 as God’s final plan; “In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth.” 

Vs.1-6 God tells Isaiah to exemplify what will happen to the Egyptians and the Cushites.  “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.’ And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.” Walking around in his underwear, such as it was in those days. Why was he wearing sackcloth? Was it because the ten tribes, Samaria, was conquered and many of the Israelites were taken to Assyria? Or was sackcloth his attire as a prophet? Whatever the reason, apparently, it was not humble enough. Imagine it, living in your underwear for three years, Isaiah was to be humbled, rejected, made fun of and completely lose his reputation. But it was to shame his people, and I assume that was made clear, a reminder of their folly of thinking that the Egyptians would save them. Verse 6 tells all, “In that day the people who live on this coast will say, ‘See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’”

That is the question, we, who are true Christians, must ask ourselves. What are we relying on? Doing good, loving your neighbor, church attendance, living a clean-cut life, studying the Bible, all that is good but all that does not save us. We are saved by trusting only in Jesus, what He has done for us. We do the good things we mentioned above not because we are trying to be saved, no, we do all that because we are already saved! Thanks be to God!

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# 25 2025 Dev. Ex 33:19 “Mercy and Compassion!” Read all of chapter thirty-three first. We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think on and interact with. This is God’s Story. Do you believe that this may also be part of our story, in our time? All passages are taken from the NIV.

Exodus 33:3 “Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”

Ex.33 After the fiasco of the golden calf and God’s refusal to go with them, the people mourned. Moses, for his part, went to meet God at the tent of meeting, this was before the tabernacle was established. God shows His glory to Moses.

Vs.1-6 “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’” God’s sends Moses and the nation to leave and to go to Canaan. “But I will not go with you…

When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no one put on any ornaments.”

Vs.7-11 The tent of meeting. “Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrance to their tents.” When the pillar of cloud stood at the “entrance to the tent, the people worshiped, each at the entrance to their tent.”

Vs.12-14 “Moses said to the Lord, you have been telling me, ‘lead these people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me.” God answered “my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” When God sends us, he will not only go with us in the power of the Holy Spirit but He will equip us as well!  

Vs.15-17 Then Moses said to him, “if your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here… And the Lord said to Moses, ‘I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” In many ways Moses is a type of Christ, interceding for the people and bargaining with God for His presence. In Christ and by His Spirit, God knows us by name and we have direct access to God. Praise the Lord!                                                              

Vs.18-23 “Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory. And the Lord said, ‘I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”  This chapter and this proclamation shows us the heart of God in Christ. It is not what we do or don’t do, trusting in Jesus only saves us! We are in God’s Hands, Amen! The rest of the chapter tells us how God will show Moses His glory and keep Moses alive in the process.

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# 24 2025 Dev. Isa.19:1. “God’s Plan!” Read all of chapter nineteen first. We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think on and interact with. This is God’s Story. Do you believe that this may also be part of our story, in our time? All passages are taken from the NIV.

Isa.19:16 “In that day the Egyptians will become weaklings. They will shudder with fear at the uplifted hand that the Lord Almighty raises against them.” 

Isaiah 19 Is about God’s plan turning the Egyptians against each other. But God will also turn Assyria and the Egyptians, toward Israel. “In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth.” 

Vs1-17 “A prophecy against Egypt:” Family, friends, areas of the country will be at odds with each other.  “The waters of the river will dry up,” Will the rivers be dry or is the conflict so severe that there is no desire to farm, no more trade, no workers or fishers to keep things going as it was? The counselors and the Pharaoh “give senseless advice…The officials of Zoan have become fools, the leaders of Memphisare deceived; the cornerstones of her people have led Egypt astray…because of what the Lord Almighty is planning against them.”

Vs.18-25 “In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord Almighty. One of them will be called the City of the Sun.” It almost reads as the Day of the Lord, The New Heaven and the New Earth. “The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.” The people of the known world, at that time, are included and this includes all of His followers today, thanks be to God.

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# 23 2025 Dev. Ex 32: “Intercession!” Read all of chapter thirty-two first. We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think on and interact with. This is God’s Story. Do you believe that this may also be part of our story, in our time? All passages are taken from the NIV.

Exodus 32:9 “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, ‘and they are a stiff-neckedpeople.’”

Ex.32 The people became impatient and said to Aaron, “Come, make us gods who will go beforeus. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” They said make us a god to go before us. Aaron listened to them and made a golden calf and built an alter and said, “tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.”

Vs.1-6 The people gave Aaron gold and Aaron made a calf, the people were familiar with that idol as a god worshiped in Egypt and also in Canaan I Kn. 12. People sacrificed on the alter Aaron had built, burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. “Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.”

Vs.7-10 “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt… Now leave me aloneso that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

Vs.11-14 “But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God…. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the starsin the sky and I will give your descendants all this landI promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever. Then the Lord relentedand did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.”

Vs.15-20 “Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant lawin his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back.” When Moses saw the calf, he smashed the two stone tablets on the ground, he burned the calf, ground it up and spread the grindings on the water and made the people drink it.

Vs.21-29 “Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstockto their enemies… and said, whoever is for the Lord, come to me. And all the Levites rallied to him.” He ordered them to strap on their swords, go and kill your brother and friend and neighbor. On “that day about three thousand of the people died.” This was punishment all around, to the executioners, killing brothers and friends and to the executed, this was a corporate punishment. Yet in acting for God, though painful, they are blessed by God. Aaron as the leader had brought this on the people by not opposing this apostacy, as many church leaders today do not oppose the apostasy of our time.

Vs.30-35 “The next day Moses said to the people, (and to Aaron) ‘you have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the Lord, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.’” Moses acknowledges to God what a great sin was committed. “But please forgive their sin­­—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.” Here Moses becomes a type of Christ, willing to sacrifice himself for the people, If only we had leaders of that caliber today! God answers, “whoever has sinned against me I will blot out.” It is up to Christ to atone alone, yet, those like Moses, Aaron and a host of others, all those who believed in the promises of God, pointing to Jesus, are all written in the Book of Life. Praise be to God!

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# 21 2025 Dev. Ex.31:12. Sunday! Read all of chapter thirty one first. We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think on and interact with. This is God’s Story. Do you believe that this may also be part of our story, in our time? All passages are taken from the NIV.

Ex.31:12 “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘say to the Israelites, You must observe my Sabbaths.’”

Ex.31 Moses is now ready to come down from the mountain of God. When He gave him the two tablets of the covenant law, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God, the Ten Commandments.

In this chapter God endows Bezalel from the tribe of Judah, with the Spirit of God. God also appointed  Oholiab from the tribe of Dan as a helper. “ Also I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I have commanded you.”

Vs.1-11 “The Lord said to Moses, see I have Chosen Bezalel… ‘I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge  and with all kinds of skills — to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts.” What follows is a long list of all the furniture and the garments that God had commanded Moses to make for the Tabernacle that was to be constructed. (see in the previous Chs.)

People are gifted naturally, but it comes from the Holly spirit, and there are a great verity of gifts, every healthy person has a gift, some have more than one but gifts come from God. Our responsibility is to develop our gifts, for the advancement of Spiritual wellbeing, for others and for ourselves. 

Vs. 12-18  The Sabbath. “Then the Lord said to Moses, Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.’” Observing Sabbath was a command under the pain of death. The Israelites were to be set aside and not be like other Nations. The sabbath was holy because God had made them holy, it was to reflect God’s rest after creation and God’s eternal rest promised to His people, all Christians, after this life. The New Testament Church moved the Sabbath to the first day of the week, the day Jesus rose from the dead. Sunday has since been considered to be the day of rest. That practice has been a great help to Mankind, by having one day a week to rest. Today, not religiously adhered to but most people want and get two days off a week. 

Paul tells us in Rom.14:4-6 “One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.” This applies to all areas of life, but for our spiritual health Sunday is a blessing when taking the time to worship. The “weekend” has become an idol for many but taking time for God on Sunday or any other day of the week is the recipe for a healthy happy life. God knows what is good for us!

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# 20 2025 Dev. Isa.17:7. “Turn to God!” Read all of chapter seventeen first. We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think on and interact with. This is God’s Story. Do you believe that this may also be part of our story, in our time? All passages are taken from the NIV.

Isa.17:7 “In that day people will look to their Makerand turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.”

Isaiah 17 “A Prophecy Against Damascus”; that is the title of this chapter but Isaiah also speaks-out against Israel, the 10 tribes that separated from the original Israel. They were aligned with Assyria against Judah. 

Vs.1-5 “See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins…  The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim…”The devastation is likened to a harvest, leaving nothing standing.

Vs.6-9 “Yet some gleanings will remain… four our five  on the fruitful boughs”  Again Isaiah uses a harvest metaphor. “In that day” sometime in the future,  a statement used to announce the destruction and to announce returning to God; “In that day people will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.” They leave behind their idols and altars. These are Israelites, they may even influence the non Israeli population. But it is done under duress. We should be leaving behind our idols and our fetishes, like horoscopes, satan worship, and other aberrations. We as a people and a country need to turn back to God, if we don’t, we will do it under duress!

Vs.10-14 Here we have the reason for Israel’s demise, “You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.” Isaiah continues with the harvest metaphor, You have planted “imported vines” you have tended them “yet the harvest will be as nothing… Woe to the many nations that rage they rage like the raging sea!” Here Isaiah moves to an ocean metaphor. The Assyrian empire was made up of many nations, God allowed them to take Israel, the 10 tribes, that was their punishment for rejecting the true God for the idol, Sherah, involving immoral practices. Those tribes were scattered and are lost to history, “this is the portion of those who loot us… ” the Assyrians. “in the evening, sudden terror!  Before the morning, they are gone!” That is what happened to them after the King consulted Isaiah who prophesied against the Assyrians, 2 Kings 19:35-36 “That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!  So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.” God is in control in our country as well. Praise Him!

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# 19 2025 Dev. Ex.30:7-8. All of Life is Worship! Read all of chapter thirty first. We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think on and interact with. This is God’s Story. Do you believe that this may also be part of our story, in our time? All passages are taken from the NIV.

Ex.30:7-8 “Aaron must burn fragrant incense on the altar every morning… again when he lights the lamps at twilight so incense will burn regularly before the Lord for the generations to come.”

Ex.30 Moses is up on the mountain with God, for one more chapter, he is given the detailed instructions concerning the tabernacle, and vestments. This chapter is going back to making implements for the tabernacle, collecting funds, mixing anointing oil and mixing incense.

Vs.1-6 “Make an altar of acacia wood for burning incense. It is to be square, a cubit long and a cubit wide, and two cubits high—its horns of one piece with it.” Overlay it with gold.  It must be placed in the Holy Place before the Lord.

Vs.7-10 “Aaron must burn fragrant incense on the altar every morning when he tends the lamps. He must burn incense again when he lights the lamps at twilight so incense will burn regularly before the Lord for the generations to come.” Only incense and only the prescribed incense must be burned. Further, atonement must be made once  a  year for  the incense alter.

Vs.11-16 Atonement “When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the Lord a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Everyone, rich or poor must pay the same, half a shekel. This money was to be used for service of the temple.” Atonement is a theme that runs throughout services at the Temple, but this was an atonement for their lives. Most scholars think that this was a yearly atonement, foreshadowing the atonement of Jesus for us, once and for all. Thanks be to God!

Vs.17-21 “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a bronze basin with its bronze stand, for washing.” This was used to wash the hands and the feet of the priests. They must wash their hands and feet with water every time they ministered sacrifices, burning incense and lighting the minnora. Cleanliness is paramount when approaching God. Psalm 24:3-4 “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?  The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.”

Vs.22-33 “Take the following fine spices…liquid myrrh…fragrant cinnamon…fragrant calamus… cassia”, to be mixed with olive oil to be used as anointing oil.  It was used to consecrate Aaron and his sons, as well as all the furniture and all utensils and the tabernacle. It came with regulations, with the pain of expulsion from the community;  “Do not pour it on anyone else’s body and do not make any other oil using the same formula. It is sacred, and you are to consider it sacred.”

Vs.34-38 “Take fragrant spices—gum resin, onycha and galbanum—and pure frankincense, all in equal amounts, and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer. It is to be salted and pure and sacred.” It is to be holy, and put some in front of the ark. This incense must not be copied or burned other than on the alter of incense, under the pain of expulsion from the congregation. 

Take note; the vestments, the tabernacle, all the color, gold and all the furniture, and spices are geared to all the senses. There are churches geared to that end, many of those churches are full. Reformed churches are geared to theology, the mind and the heart. In more progressive Reformed churches, they have a theology for the road of living, prayer, professional projection, lighting, and more contemporary music, which is growing those churches, a healthy dose of addressing the senses is included. All of life is worship, thanks be to God.

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# 18 2025 Dev. Isa.16:5. “The Throne!” Read all of chapter sixteen first. We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think on and interact with. This is God’s Story. Do you believe that this may also be part of our story, in our time? All passages are taken from the NIV.

Isa.16:5b “a man…one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness.”

Isaiah 15 is a prophecy against Moab that continues in Ch. 16. There is no escaping God’s justice. That continues to this day, God, not man executes justice in this world.  Yes, but there is a reprieve, “In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it…” A man? Who is that man?

Vs.1-4a This chapter continues the prophecy against Moab. Send tribute  “to the mount of Daughter Zion.” They are weak, and confused. Moab is seeking refuge; “Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you; be their shelter from the destroyer.” 

Vs. 4b-5 “The oppressor will come to an end… In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it—one from the house of David—one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness.” David was intimately connected to Moab since Ruth was his grandmother. “in faithfulness a man will sit on it—one from the house of David” foreshadowing Jesus Christ.

Vs. 6-14 “We have heard of Moab’s pride—how great is her arrogance!—of her conceit, her pride and her insolence…” The next verses are a lament of what is about to happen to the Moabite nation. The  Moabites have no standing: Dt.23:3-4 “No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation.4 For they did not come to meet you with bread and water on your way when you came out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim to pronounce a curse on you.” In the end Balaam received the same fate.  The Lament reaches a tragic end, “ her survivors will be very few and feeble.” This is the result of not only sin but standing in opposition to God’s people, Christians today!!! We know that the God Man is on the Throne, thanks be to God.

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# 17 2025 Dev. Ex.29:46.The Lord is our God! Read all of chapter twenty eight first. We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think on and interact with. This is God’s Story. Do you believe that this may also be part of our story, in our time? All passages are taken from the NIV.

Ex29:46 “I am the Lord their God.”

Ex.29 Moses is up on the mountain with God, for two more chapters, he is given the detailed instructions concerning the Tabernacle, and Vestments. This chapter is about the ordination of the priests.

Vs.1-9 “This is what you are to do to consecrate them, so they may serve me as priests:” (Aaron and his four sons) God gives Moses detailed instruction about what to sacrifice in order to ordain the priest that God had chosen. That is the point for us as well, God is the One who choses our ministers and priests. They also are ordained in the presence of the congregation.

Vs.10-37 God’s orders to ordain the high priest and his four sons as priests was a long and complicated ceremony. A bull would be sacrificed, some parts burned  on the altar, the fat, the kidneys a part of the liver but the skin, intestines and flesh was to be burned outside the camp  as a sin offering.  It also involved two rams, one ram was to be sacrificed, after laying on of hands by Aaron and his four sons. The second ram: “Consecrate those parts of the ordination ram that belong to Aaron and his sons: the breast that was waved and the thigh that was presented. This is always to be the perpetual share from the Israelites for Aaron and his sons. It is the contribution the Israelites are to make to the Lord from their fellowship offerings.” The ordination was to take seven days. “Sacrifice a bull each day as a sin offering to make atonement,” also, make atonement for the altar. The sacrifices ordered by God here, prefigure the one and final  sacrifice for sin that Jesus offered willingly on the cross as the sinless God man, turning the second death away from all those who put their trust in Him.

Vs.38-41 “This is what you are to offer on the altar regularly each day: two lambs a year old. Offer one in the morning and the other at twilight.” The morning and the evening offerings include flour, olive oil and wine. This was to take place every day, it does not say who is to supply all the items needed for the daily offerings. We assume it was to be provided by the congregation, free will offerings. So it is today the congregations provide for the needs of the churches, temple and mosque, all by free will offerings.

Vs.42-43 It comes with a promise, to Israel and Christians today that is still true; “There I will meet you and speak to you; there also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by my glory.” By the power of the Holy Spirit God speaks to us by His Son, Jesus, by His Word and by His Creation.

 Vs.44-46 “Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.” God is our God and dwells among, us, He brought us out of the slavery of sin, consecrates us in Jesus, who intercedes for us, and who comes to take us home to the Father. Praise be to God! 

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