Exodus 17 – 20

Need Charlton Heston to help me on this one. The talk about how long the movie “The Ten Commandments” played over Easter with commercials was. Think about it a movie that runs 3 hours and 40 minutes before commercials must have been agonizing to watch with commercials every 20 minutes. Anyway, if you haven’t already figured it out, Moses comes off the mountain in todays reading.

Chapter 17 has two stories which blend together, first is him bringing water from a rock and the battle with the Amalekites where he holds his staff over the battle. I find it interesting how I read these stories today and remember them being different. The water from the stone I though was in more detail and I did check back other versions to ensure I was not missing something in this translation. Same thing when I read the story with the staff and getting the 10 Commandments. I wonder how much Hollywood and sermons expanding on these stories have altered what I expected to read?

Verse 19:5 is a powerful verse:

Now if you will hear My voice, obey what I say, and keep My covenant, then you—out of all the nations of the world—will be My treasured people. After all, the earth belongs to Me.

These are simple rules to follow until you let other distractions get in the way of God’s voice. If I knew for real what God was saying to me all the time this would be simple. But all too often my inner voice or a more sinister one gets heard. Now to balance the inability to discern God talking to me, I read the Bible. It helps me to filter what is being said verses what I know from the Bible.

Verse 20:3 opens with the first commandment (or as this translation calls them “directive”):

You are not to serve any other gods before Me.

People often say the church is all about money, that’s all they talk about. I agree to a point but remember Jesus talked about money more than any other subject so it’s Biblical. Now you may ask why I am talking about money here! Simple, in modern civilization we talk about God or dismiss any supernatural beings altogether. Jesus saw this happening and hence why he talked about it so much. Our “other gods” are no longer idols, but rather dead presidents on paper. So be careful with your walk in life not to focus on the Jackson’s or Franklin’s, but on God. Manage the money well, but don’t let it manage you or you will be in violation of number 1.

AND NO WE ARE NOT OUTSIDE THE LAW!! But that’s another LONG study.

One other quick note about these Directives, notice God has inscribed them on all mankind’s heart. These are universal across all cultures and tribes.