Bible Devotion

Meditative Reflection
A Ransom Has Been Paid for Our Lives

“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. Then no plague will come on them when you number them.” (Exod. 30:12)

When the Lord gives Moses the instruction to pay a ransom for the life of those being counted, He obviously anticipates that a census would eventually be taken among the people. It was indeed not uncommon for the kings of the nations to count their population and they did so either for the sake of measuring their military strength or for the sake of collecting tax revenue (as Caesar Augustus did in Luke 2).

When Moses carried out the anticipated census in Numbers 1, no reason was given. However, whatever the reason for such a census might be, God lays down clearly the condition under which it is to be carried out, and that is the levying of a ransom to be given to the temple. Also, the consequence of non-compliance is also implied in that a plague would result. This did happen in 2 Samuel 24 when David carried out a census, presumably without paying the ransom-levy.

However, by naming the levy as a ransom and associating a plague with it, the Lord has already reminded Moses and all future leaders of Israel of an important spiritual truth, and that is, they owe their very lives (and existence) to the Lord.

The reason that they could have “crossed over” (Exod. 30:13) and be counted alive is because God has given “Egypt as a ransom” for them (Isa. 43:3). The plagues that killed the Egyptians could have easily killed them as well. So, when they carry out a census (for whatever reason), they should always remember that they owe their lives and their very existence to the mercy of God.

This also reveals the heart of God in that, while the Israelites might rejoice over their increasing number, God continues to grieve over those who have not been able to “cross over” and died in the plagues. So fittingly, if a census of His people is to be carried out in pride forgetting that all is by grace, they would face the punishment of plagues as a reminder of the ransom being paid for their good fortune.

If this was the case for the Israelites, how much more should we refrain from “counting sheep” in the church or in our ministry, lest we forget the huge ransom that has been paid for our salvation on the cross by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Meditative Reflection
Only for God’s Enjoyment

“You shall consecrate them so they will be most holy, and whatever touches them will be holy.” (Exod. 30:29)

The Lord gives very strict commands as to the formulae of the sacred oil and incense used in the tabernacle, and He forbids their use for any other means or for the enjoyment by anyone else. The punishment for such violation is most severe—the punishment of death.

It is true that in the period immediately following the announcement of these instructions, we see rather instant punishments or retributions levied upon such violators (like the two sons of Aaron in Lev. 10:2)—perhaps for the sake of setting precedents. But the Lord has been slow in anger and punishment, even to our days. However, this does not diminish God’s demand for complete holiness from those who come before Him to serve Him. The strict commands as to the use of the sacred oil and sacred incense speak volumes of God’s desire not only for our holiness, but also for our singular devotion to Him for His enjoyment alone.

In other words, His desire for our “first love” is not revealed only as late as the last book of the Bible (Rev. 2:4), but as early as Exodus 30, or, should I say, throughout the entire Scripture. First love is necessarily singular love.

Meditative Reflection
All Ministries are Spiritual

“See, I have chosen Bezalel…and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—.” (Exod. 31:2-3)

We somehow divide services to the Lord into two categories—spiritual and non-spiritual. So, preaching, teaching and leading Bible Study are considered spiritual ministries, demanding those who serve be filled with the Holy Spirit, and rightfully so. But what about those who serve in other areas, like the Building Committee, Finance Committee or Community Service Committee? Somehow, we think that those who serve in these capacities should either have the required skills or passion, but whether they live a Spirit-filled life is totally irrelevant. The choosing of Bezalel to work on the building of the tabernacle and its contents should dispel such an erroneous distinction. Not only all services rendered to the Lord are spiritual and demand a Spirit-filled life, there is basically no distinction between spiritual and non-spiritual ministry for the Lord. The only real distinction is whether the person who performs the service is a spiritual person or not—i.e. whether he or she is filled with and directed by the Holy Spirit in their daily lives.

Meditative Reflection
We are the Seventh Day

“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.” (Exod. 31:13)

As the Lord finishes His 40-day-and-night meeting with Moses, He reiterates, of all Commandments, the one on Sabbath, which definitely highlights its importance in the heart of God. Allow me to share with you Augustine’s thoughts on the subject as follows:

“Heaven, too, will be the fulfillment of that Sabbath rest foretold in the command: ‘Be still and see that I am God.’ (Ps. 46:11) [sic*]. This, indeed, will be that ultimate Sabbath that has no evening and which the Lord foreshadowed in the account of His creation: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. And He blessed the seventh day and sanctified it: because in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.’ (Gen 2:2-3) And we ourselves will be a ‘seventh day’ when we shall be filled with His blessings and remade by His sanctification. In the stillness of that rest we shall see that He is the God whose divinity we ambitioned for ourselves when we listened the seducer’s words, ‘You shall be as gods,’ (Gen. 3:5) and so fell away from Him, the true God who would have given us a divinity by participation that could never be gained by desertion. For, where did the doing without God end but in the undoing of man through the anger of God?" [*(Ps. 46:10)]

Only when we are remade by God and perfected by a greater grace shall we have the eternal stillness of that rest in which we shall see that He is God. Then only shall we be filled with Him when He will be all in all. For, although our good works are, in reality, His, they will be put to our account as a payment for this Sabbath peace, so long as we do not claim them as our own; but if we do, they will be reckoned as servile and out of place on the Sabbath, as the text reminds us, ‘The seventh day…is the rest of the Lord…Thou shalt not do any work therein.’ (Deut. 5:14) In this connection, too, God has reminded us, through the Prophet Ezekiel: ‘I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifies them.’ (20:12) It is this truth that we shall realize perfectly when we shall be perfectly at rest and shall perfectly see that it is He who is God.” (Augustine, City of God, 543-4)

Meditative Reflection
A Faithless People

“Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” (Exod. 32:1)

I am sure we all have read the incident of the golden calf for the zillionth time, and yet we still cannot get over how quickly, callously and shamelessly the people of God turned away and rebelled against the Lord. I still have yet to come up with an adequate term to describe them, although God said of them that they were “a stiff-necked people”. Even this is too mild a verdict for them.

These were the people who, under the yoke of the Egyptians, moaned and groaned to God until their cry was heard.

These were the people who witnessed the tug-of-war between the Lord and Pharaoh resulting in the nine horrible plagues that inflicted injuries in the land of Egypt on men and animals, yet they themselves were spared.

These were the people who saw the horror of the tenth plague which killed all the first born in Egypt and heard the wailing across Egypt, yet they themselves were spared.

These were the people who walked on dry ground across the Red Sea and saw first-hand the drowning of Pharaoh’s army.

These were the people who saw the pillar of cloud by day and the fire by night that had been leading them day and night, all the way to Mount Sinai.

These were the people, only 40 days ago, who saw and heard the sounds and sights of the awesome appearance of the Lord on Mount Sinai.

They knew who brought them out of Egypt.

They knew Yahweh as the most powerful God.

They knew that He had chosen them as His own people.

They knew that He is faithful in honoring the promise He made to their forefathers and that He has a plan for them, to lead them into the Promised Land and to make them into a nation of priests and holy people.

Yet, within a span of only 40 days, they appeared to have forgotten all these—it was impossible! How can anyone explain all these?

Well, their rebellion under such circumstances powerfully and clearly demonstrated what true faith in the Lord is not—true faith has nothing to do with being convinced of God’s existence, power and even love. True faith in the Lord is “obedience”. In their minds, there was no way that they were not convinced, based on the many miracles that they have seen, and continued to see on a daily basis, that God is real, God exists, God is powerful and God loves them, except that from day one, they had no intention to obey Him as their God. They only wanted Him to give them the freedom from slavery that they longed for. Then afterwards, they wanted freedom from Him as well. As a result, once Moses disappeared from their sight for about 40 days, they wanted to fashion a god after their own image, not so much to lead them, but to follow them and their wishes.

God was being kind in calling them stiff-necked. While I label them in my caption as “faithless”, you may want to come up with your description of a people like them. However, many Christians these days are not totally unlike these Israelites of old.

Meditative Reflection
Sharing the Heart of God

“Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt'…But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God…'why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt…?' ” (Exod. 32:7, 11)

As heinous as the crime committed by the Israelites was in building a golden calf to replace the Lord, it did bring out the best in Moses and perhaps in the Lord as well.

No one can blame God for being angry with a people so quick and prone to rebel against Him. No one can blame Moses for being totally disgusted with a people who did not care a bit about what might have happened to him. But neither God nor Moses showed any sign of dumping the people for good.

In showing his anger against the people, the Lord said something that He never said before: In speaking to Moses, He referred to the Israelites as “your people whom you brought up out of Egypt” and He told Moses to leave Him alone so that His anger may burn against them. (32:7, 10)

If I were Moses, I would certainly challenge the Lord as to “who brought the people up out of Egypt”! It was certainly the Lord and they were His people. Yet, Moses did not challenge the Lord in this respect. If I were Moses, I would have told the Lord more than that and said “I have told you so!”

This is remarkable how Moses has grown to share the heart of God, in embracing such a people as his own, even at this most disheartening moment.

And when God asked Moses to leave Him alone, instead of punishing the people right away, He was waiting for Moses’ response or rather He was testing the heart of Moses to see if he had come to embrace His people as his own.

And God had succeeded.

Although Moses reminded God that they were His people, he did not dispute that they were his people as well. And, he proceeded to intercede on behalf of his people!

Indeed, the forty days and nights of meeting with the Lord has completely transformed Moses. He has come to know his God personally. He has come to understand and share the heart of God.

This is what being a leader of God’s household is all about—not just dispensing one’s duties effectively; not just being obedient to the charge of God; but understanding and sharing the heart of God for His people, as his people.

Meditative Reflection
A Tale of Two Leaders

“Aaron answered…'Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf !” (Exodus 32:24)

You have to laugh at the answer given by Aaron that all he did was to collect the gold jewelry from the people and “out came this calf”. This was a total denial of responsibility. There was no remorse, there was no contrition, and there was certainly no repentance. I truly wonder why God would continue to use Aaron, but God is such a God of second chances!

As incredible as his action was, we may be able to understand part of his motives and that was he saw this as an opportunity to usurp leadership from Moses. As we know, he was jealous of how Moses always was the one to whom God spoke and gave orders. As much as Moses always had Aaron by his side, whether it was challenging Pharaoh or speaking to the people, Aaron knew he did not command the same authority and respect from the people. Now, with Moses gone for 40 days and nights (and I am sure deep in his heart he knew Moses was safe and sound with the Lord), he seized this opportunity offered by his absence to replace Moses as “the” leader. After all, Moses had never listened to the people, and now he would be the “listening leader” and would have the people on his side, even if Moses would surface later on. As we know, his failed attempt to usurp leadership did not deter him from trying again to oppose Moses’ leadership (Numbers 12).

On the contrary, the selfless nature of Moses was markedly revealed by the same incident when God, out of anger, offered to make Moses into a great nation (Exod. 32:10). In other words, Moses had the chance of a lifetime to take Abraham’s place to be blessed as a great nation. What an honor, what an opportunity! But he would have none of that! Moses never wanted to be great, even with his unparalleled education and leadership. He had indeed grown into a godly leader—a leader whose only concern is the glory of God and not his own. What a tale of two leaders! What a tale of two brothers!