February 3-7
[M] Exodus 16-18; Eph 4
[T] Ex 19-21; Psalm 33; Eph 5
[W] Ex 22-24; Psalm 109; Eph 6
[T] Ex 25-27; Psalm 90; Philippians 1
[F] Ex 28-31; Philippians 2
Dwell Plan Day 26-30 | CSB | Digital PDF | Printable PDF
Notes from Jon & Chris
Monday
Exodus 16 | Take note at how this narrative shines a light at the gracious character of God. Think about the order of events. First, God saves the people twice (plagues and the Red Sea crossing), they worship him some (chapter 15) and then immediately they start the complaining. If you are a parent, you know the frustration that God must have felt. But instead of taking away iPad time, God blessed them even more and provided bread and quail for them to eat. Take a minute and really think about what this teaches us about His character. When we are awful, he is good. When we let our hearts sink into sin, he is filled with grace.
Exodus 16:20, 27 | We’re going to see this over and over again: very plain and clear instructions are not followed by God’s people. The “rules” don’t really work, and that’s something that these stories prove over and over and over. This becomes the proof for us all–laws and rules just make us want to disobey them and aren't of any use to us, except to reveal just how ruined we really are. The rules worked back then to show us our inability to rescue ourselves, how we can’t even follow simple instructions, and that just demonstrates how it’s all by grace alone.
Exodus 17 | Make a mental note to remember this story of the Amalakites. It’ll come up again over and over.
Exodus 17:11 | What would your prayer life look like if you knew it had this effect? How would you act if your prayers starting or stopping were the difference between success and failure? Christ Himself takes the lesson–we know that because He’s constantly interceding. This picture of Moses is a picture of Jesus now! But it’s also an encouragement to us in our daily walk–our prayers for our pastors, our leaders, and our communities are just like that of Moses. It’s almost like Moses read Hebrews 4, boldly going to the throne of grace and grabbing it by his hand!
Ephesians 4:8-10 | The ESV Study Bible has a helpful note on these confusing verses:
“lower regions, the earth: In the incarnation, Christ descended from the highest heavens to the lowest regions (i.e., to the earth), where he suffered, died, and was buried, but where he also defeated death and rose again. He then ascended (Acts 1:9) 40 days later to be seated in the highest heavens at the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:33).”
Tuesday
Exodus 19 I Have you ever wondered how powerful our sin nature is? Think about this. These people who witnessed God at Sinai will soon rebel against him. You’ve probably thought, “If only I could have been there to see something like this…” If you had been there, you’d have rebelled too. You were born with that same sin nature corrupting your very being. While thinking about this can be a massive bummer, it also leads us to see the beauty of the work of Christ. His death and resurrection remade you and the Spirit that lives in you now is even stronger than the sin that held power over you.
Exodus 20-23 | Lots and lots of rules here, with punishments listed. As you read, the death sentence looks pretty common for many sins, which can sound pretty severe. Some of this is context. Compared to other ancient legal codes, it’s actually quite merciful! But it’s also wise to read these laws and punishments as standards to help with judicial thinking. Some interpreters think this represents the maximum sentence permissible, not the required sentence at all times. Each situation had to be measured and judged individually with wisdom. By teaching the maximum sentencing of the law, the rules continue to reveal our need for grace–a grace greater than God’s mercy–as well as the absolute holiness of God.
Exodus 20:3 | “You shall have no other gods before me.” Here is a great bit by Martin Luther from his Larger Catechism. The idea is that this first commandment is the foundation that the others rest on. You can’t break any of the others without also breaking this one.
“Now, I say that whatever you set your heart on and rely on is really your god. The purpose of this commandment is to require true faith and confidence of the heart, which flies straight to the one true God and clings to Him alone. It is like saying, ‘See to it that you let Me alone be your God, and never seek another.’ In other words, ‘Whatever you lack of good things, expect it from Me, and look to Me for it. And whenever you suffer misfortune and distress, crawl and cling to Me. I, yes I, will give you enough and help you out of every need. Only do not let your heart cleave to or rest on any other.’”
Exodus 21 | One of the most common attacks on the scriptures is that they promote slavery. We’ll probably cover this topic in more detail later on, but let’s begin the discussion by noting a few key ideas:
First, note the context of these laws is the Exodus–the freeing of the people from slavery. It’s a leap to call a story about the freeing of a people from slavery “pro slavery.”
Second, these laws were not meant to promote slavery, but to limit it and protect slaves in a time where slavery was the norm and humanity had no chance of eradicating it. When compared to other ancient law codes and cultures, it’s clear that God was moving his people towards a world of justice and love, but that he was doing it one step at a time. In the ancient world, slaves had no rights and were treated as property. These laws prevented that.
Third, the ancient world was a brutal and unforgiving world. A lot of slavery was self imposed indentured servitude due to poverty. And in fact, verse 16 specifically prohibits the “stealing of a man,” like we saw in the Transatlantic slave trade.
Fourth, slavery was an institution in every single society until the Christian abolitionist movement led by people of faith like Harriet Tubman, William Wilberforce, Frederick Douglass and the like. The way that they applied the idea of the Imago Dei and the inclusion of all mankind into the people of God led to the idea that slavery was evil and needed to be wiped out (we’ll talk more about this when we get to the New Testament epistle of Philemon).
Lastly, this isn’t to say that the church has clean hands. The church is filled with sinners shaped by culture more than we realize, and this has held true in church history with the institution of slavery. Some of our faith heroes were people who enslaved others and lived their entire lives with sinful blind spots to Biblical truth in this area (Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield are examples). We, as the people of God, should own up to our history but at the same time we should appreciate the way that the Bible calls us to love and serve all people. We should be thankful for the truth of the upside-down kingdom of God that will find its pinnacle in the New Heaven and Earth where people from all races and social standings will join in one voice worshipping the Lord for (to borrow a phrase from Tolkien) making all the terribleness of our current world “come untrue.”
If you want to dive deeper into this topic, here are a few resources:
Gavin Ortlund Article (This is probably the best quick read) https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/is-bible-pro-slavery/
Confronting Christianity, Chapter 10, by Rebecca McLaughlin.
Ownership: The Evangelical Legacy of Slavery in Edwards, Wesley, and Whitefield by Sean McGever.
NSBT: Slave of Christ (New Studies in Biblical Theology) by Murray J Harris
The Bible Project - https://bibleproject.com/classroom/exodus-overview-carmen-imes/sessions/20
Andrew Judd Article (https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/bible-slavery/)
Exodus 21:23-25 | As we read the law and its many rules, look for the principles. The inner principles of God’s morality tell us about Him and the way the world really works. These few verses bring up a principle that all of these laws and rules are based on–this is the principle of restitution here–and as we look at the greater principle of justice it describes, we realize we have the basis for how the cross would work: There can be a payment for a crime or a loss or a sin as long as that payment is equal to or greater than the original loss. Christ’s payment in His righteous obedience and sacrificial blood meets the requirements of equity in the law. God is consistent and so is His rescue of sinners.
Wednesday
Exodus 24:10-11 | Dinner with God in His presence! This wouldn’t happen again until Jesus sat down with His disciples. That’s how we know this elders’ dinner is truly a promise of life in and with and before God! A little tasting sample of the coming marriage supper of the Lamb!
Ephesians 6:17-18 | “The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and praying at all times in the Spirit” Paul is teaching that Spirit filled prayer is prayer that uses the word of God. That’s the sense of the grammar in those verses, and the repetition of the word Spirit. This is meant to encourage you–pray the way the Bible shows you to pray! Use its teaching to inform and shape and embolden your prayer life. This is a direct response to spiritual warfare around you and against you. Reading the Bible in a year is also meant to sharpen your prayer life! The sword play of reading our Bibles makes our prayers watchful and informed as we learn more about who God is and what He is like.
Thursday
Exodus 25-27 | As you read each one of these sections, ask yourself how each one of these aspects of the Tabernacle points to Jesus. Remember that the Old Testament is filled with images and patterns that are meant to point the people of God to the coming of Jesus.
Philippians 1:21-24 | I love the depth of faith that we see with Paul in these verses. “I’d rather die than live ‘cause if I die, I get to see Jesus face to face. But if he wants me to live a little longer to do more ministry, I guess that’s okay too.” What an amazing example of how the gospel gives us a new perspective on life and death!
Psalm 90 | This is the only poem by Moses in the Psalms. When you read it, think about his long life, his frustrations and failures as a leader, his passion for God, his suffering for his own mistakes, and his discouragement as the leader of God’s people. This poem has a lot of longing in it, as well as a sense of how short life is. This is the poem of an old and faithful servant of God as he considers his own life and what will remain after he’s gone. Learn from his wisdom. It was hard earned and filled with the Spirit.
Friday
Exodus 29:20 | This is where Aaron and his sons are consecrated for their priestly ministry. Two things to note as you read. First, all of this preparation and sacrifice and consecration–it all happens right before Aaron goes and leads the people to worship the golden calves. Yup. Right after learning all of this, Aaron goes and worships an idol. It’s like none of this ever even happened. Like God hadn’t spoken and appeared in fire and smoke on the mountain, saying that idolatry is the very first thing you must not do. Crazy. But that’s why you have verse 20. Because, secondly, Aaron and his boys get the sacrificial blood on their right ear, their right thumb, and their right big toe. What’s the point of that? They are covered by the sacrificial blood, literally and figuratively head to toe, to signify a complete forgiveness for the whole person. And that’s exactly Aaron’s deepest need, because he’s going to quickly discover that he’s a failure too. The need is clear in our Bibles from the very start: our sinful condition is that bad and only a complete rescue will work. That’s the story of Exodus and Romans–the good news that God loves sinners and He provided a complete sacrifice to save us.
Exodus 31:3 | This is the first time folks are filled with the Spirit in the Bible! Notice this–it isn’t about a charismatic experience or a spiritual high. It’s about being able to do stuff, to make things that are beautiful, to make art for worship! Not only does this make art holy, it teaches us that the Holy Spirit is, above all things, practical. We need Him for the most basic actions of obedience and faith! Inviting the Holy Spirit into your life and heart is an invitation to action!