Law

See Exodus 18.

I've long puzzled over Jethro's role in Exodus, and I think I'm making some progress at last.

Jethro features in Exodus 2 (as Reuel, where he welcomes Moses the refugee), in Exodus 4 (where he sends Moses back to Pharaoh in peace, although Moses hasn't been strictly honest about the nature of his mission), and in most detail in Exodus 18.

We find Exodus chapters 7 to 10 quite hard to read. When we ask why this is, Motyer (paid link) is surely spot on.

Another post quoting Alec Motyer (paid link) on Exodus. His introduction is extremely helpful at drawing threads together and helping to make clear how the details of the book go to make up the whole.

Alex Motyer (paid link) is not exaggerating when he describes how important the book of Exodus is in the unfolding story of the whole Bible:

“The point of all this is to underline the importance of Exodus in the Bible. It is as significant a turning point or new beginning as is Matthew at the start of the New Testament. To go no further than recall its revelation of the divine name or its story of the blood of the lamb is at once to give it the same place in the Old Testament that the coming of Jesus and the cross of Calvary hold in the New. It begins the normative Old Testament (and biblical) revelation of God's way of salvation; it underlines the nature of God as holy and of humankind as sinners; it explains the meaning of blood and sacrifice; it is a book of the grace which reaches down from heaven and of the law which teaches redeemed sinners to live in heavenly terms. While some of these great biblical truths are foreshadowed in Genesis, Exodus pulls them all together, giving them a shape and definition that the rest of the Bible will not alter. Under the simplest of forms, and by many a fascinating story, Exodus reveals fundamental truth and is, in fact, one of the Bible's great building blocks.” (page 23)

Alec Motyer wrote this very helpful paragraph in his commentary on Exodus (paid link).

Re-reading Exodus 1:1-7:7 a few times in preparation for next Sunday's sermon, I have been struck again by just how well-crafted the book of Exodus is.

Here are a handful of details that I observed in those chapters, that are reproduced here in the hope that they might intrigue a few people to read the book of Exodus again. What, I think, we need is to read the whole book (because it functions and speaks to us as a whole), but to combine that with close attention to the details.

Peter Leithart makes a wonderful observation about Jacob, Esau and Joseph.

He says this:

Esau is a “hairy man” (sa’iyr), something we learn only when Jacob dresses himself in goat hair to approach his father (Genesis 27:11, 23). Jacob becomes a hairy one, subbing in for his brother. The only other use of the word in Genesis is in 37:31, where it describes the “kid” killed to fool into thinking that Joseph has died. Both passages involve substitution, and both involve deception of a father.

Last week I was doing a bit of work in the garden, cutting back the ever-encroaching bramble and gorse bushes.

I found myself wondering why there are so many of the things in the garden. It’s a bit of a pain.

Not that it required much thought. Genesis 3:18 solves that one for me – they serve as a reminder of the fact that life in rebellion of God’s law is never a fulfilled / happy / pain-free one. God judges those who rebel against him.

The first half of the book of Leviticus describes many different kinds of sacrifices and offerings that the people were to make in Old Testament times. It describes circumstances under which they were to be offered. Who was to offer them. Exactly how it had to be done. And so on.

Here are a few quotations.

Before you read this post, see my post yesterday about a funny coffee shop you could imagine me running…

“What conclusions would you draw, if you saw such a price label, about my intentions in selling this particular coffee?”

Let me suggest a few.