Salty Zebra

  There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.   Exodus 25:22  What do the tabernacle and its contents teach us? There is so much detail in Exodus 25-27 about how it was to be constructed, but even with that there was much left to the imagination. In Exodus 25:40, God told Moses, “Now be sure to make them according to the pattern you were shown on the mountain.” Moses was the only witness to what it was supposed to look like, and he needed to guide the craftsmen and artisans in recreating that. Some of it, the specific dimensions and materials, are written down here for us, but you know that if ten people looked at the golden lampstand and were asked to write out a description of it, you’d get ten completely different descriptions.   As you know, I’m a visual learner and thinker, and so I worked with AI (CoPilot and Gemini) to help me recreate as cl...

  “Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits. Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty.”   Exodus 23:6-7  Today’s reading, Exodus 21 -24, includes the beginning of the Mosaic Law. The Israelites had lived under Egyptian law for 430 years and before that, everyone pretty much had done what they thought to be right in their own eyes. Here, for the first time, God is clearly telling the people what He sees as right and wrong. He’s giving them guidelines and priorities. There are lots of details in this that are foreign to us and may be confusing, such as dealings with servants/slaves, but as we look at it, we can begin to see what God values and, in turn, what He wants us to value. As a reminder, as Christians we are no longer bound by the Law, but we can still very much learn from it and take those lessons to inform how we honor God and represent Him in a fallen world. ...

 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”  Exodus 20:2-3  In today’s passage ( Exodus 20 ) we read about the law that God gave to the Israelites. This was intended to teach them how to live rightly as well as to show them their sin ( Galatians 3:19 ). Until God told the Israelites that they were to observe the Sabbath, for example, they were not held accountable for it. But once they knew, they knew. Now they were aware that what they were doing was wrong in sleeping with another man’s wife, taking their neighbor’s tool, or not quite telling the truth when testifying. And alongside them, we too are now aware. The Law was given that we might see and know our sin for what it is. So that we could see our desperate need for Jesus and our hopelessness without Him.  Through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, when we believe in Him we, too, are dead to sin and alive in Ch...

  Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”  Exodus 19:5-6  I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the God of the universe, the Creator of heaven and earth. I have the privilege of speaking with Him from my home. I do not have to go to a special place. I do not have to be of a special genetic lineage. No, I have His Holy Spirit inside of me, and I may speak to Him as I’m making breakfast, as I’m folding laundry, as I’m sitting, quietly before Him. I can pray to God from inside an MRI machine, or on the road while we’re driving. But, does familiarity breed contempt? Am I too familiar with God?  I wonder this at times. I wonder if I should be kneeling when I pray like they do in the movies or in picture books, but Jesus didn’t always kneel ...

Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. Exodus 18:17-18  Have you ever gotten yourself so into your routine that you don’t even notice it anymore. You piled on one more thing and one more thing and before you know it your “simple” 17 step system is bogging you down far more than you realized. Perhaps it came from an, “I gotta do it” mentality. You come across a responsibility and feel like it’s yours, so you add it on. They even make sense in your mind. You gotta take a shower. You gotta fix breakfast. You gotta do the dishes and the laundry and clean the kitchen and the bathroom and balance the checkbook and pay the bills. You gotta lead the Bible study and serve as a greeter at church on Sunday and help out with the Women’s Tea and lead the kids’ class on Wednesday night. Before too long, these gottas will drown you! But, what are...

  As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up – one on one side, one on the other – so that his hands remained steady till sunset.   Exodus 17:11-12  The stage is set. The Israelites are deep in the wilderness. Their camp is set. The flocks and herds are watched over. But in the distance comes the sound of something different, something they weren’t expecting. The Amalekite army was approaching, and they were on the warpath! No one knows what caused the Amalekites to attack Israel. Maybe they had heard about what happened in Egypt and were intimidated by them. Maybe they knew that the Israelites saw Canaan as their promised land, and they believed the war was on its way to them. In any case, what we do know is that they took the initiative to come out to meet the Israel...

  Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”  Exodus 16:4-5  Manna wasn’t just provision for the Israelites, it was a test. Both the Israelites and God were being tested here. Let’s look at how.  God had led them out into the desert, why? He hadn’t taken them somewhere that they could easily access the things they needed, like flour for bread. There was no grocery store on the corner. He brought them out to the wilderness where they would be required to rely on Him. God’s provision and wisdom were being put to the test. Would He be able to provide food for a million people? Every day? History says that He did. He provided for them in a way that they had never expected,...

  “The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”   Exodus 15:2  Music is my heart language, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If there isn’t music going on around me (and that’s rarely the case), there’s music in my heart. It’s not uncommon for a song to be on repeat in my mind when I wake up, or to accompany me in the night. I get the Israelite’s response to what God had done for them. Ephesians 5:19-20 feels like it was written for me, and my brothers and sisters who experience the world through music like me: “Speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for each other in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”   How do you respond in faith to what our LORD has done for you? When the Spirit quickens within you, shining a light on God’s grace and merc...

This is a painting that lived in my Grandma's bedroom when I was growing up. I loved laying in her bed and looking at it, wondering at how God sends His angels to watch over us. Now that my Grandma has gone on to be with Jesus, this painting lives in my house. I pray that my guests are similarly encouraged by it.   But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore.  Exodus 14:29-30  The Israelites were quick to follow Moses out of Egypt, plundering their Egyptian neighbors along the way, and they were equally quick to turn on Moses and blame him when things looked rough, when they were hemmed in with the sea before them and the Egyptian army behind them. Equally, Pharaoh was quick to shoo the Israelites out of his country after the plague of the firstborn, wanting to be rid of them and the destru...

 On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that this law of the Lord is to be on your lips. For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand.  Exodus 13:8-9  For a long time, I enjoyed the benefits of sourdough in my kitchen. I had a starter that I fed regularly, and I used it for all manner of bread products from pancakes to sandwich bread. I learned a lot during that season that informs how I see the directive God gives in Exodus 13 . Sourdough isn’t like commercial, packaged yeast. It is a living, microbial culture. It takes on the characteristics of the local area, from your kitchen to your backyard. Over time, it can mutate and evolve into something quite different from where it started, but thankfully, there will always be wild yeasts and bacteria in the air that can start it anew.  In case you didn’t ...

  The LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and they gave them whatever they wanted, and so they plundered Egypt.   Exodus 12:36  The Israelites had a very long season of waiting before they saw the fulfillment of the promise of God to bring them out of Egypt. I wonder if they knew what God had said to Abraham back in Genesis 15:13 ? Evidently someone had been keeping track of how long they had been there at least because they knew, in Exodus 12:41 , that they had been in Egypt for exactly 430 years to the day. I wonder what this waiting was like. If you were part of the group that was in the 200-300 year range, you might know that God’s deliverance wouldn’t happen in your lifetime because it would be at least 400 years. But that group that was approaching the 400-year mark, they probably got antsy. Perhaps this was why Moses had the impression as a younger man that he was supposed to be the deliverer of his people. But, even for them, it was a long ...

  “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgement on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.   Exodus 12:12-13  Today we read about the observation of the first Passover. It was thus named because the LORD passed over the homes of the Israelites and preserved them from the plague of the death of the first born because of the testifying blood they had placed on the two doorposts and the lintel of the house they were in ( Exodus12:27 ). I love how, when God was describing the observance of this time, He told them what they would be doing in the future, after they had been freed from slavery in Egypt, but He told them while they were still there. What a beautiful gift!   On the fourteenth day of the month, they were t...

  Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord.”   Exodus 10:1-2  Today in our reading ( Exodus 8 -10, yep three whole chapters), we look at the plagues God brought upon Egypt. God is not simple or basic. There is not one reason that He did what He did here, or one reason why He does anything, but one of the reasons He brought the plagues on Egypt was so that the Egyptians would know that He is the LORD.   Why does God allow trouble to come into our lives? Think about it. When things are going well, when life is easy, how often are you drawn to God? How easy is it for you to recognize your need for Him or His power at work around you? No, it is when life gets hard, when bad things ...

  Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood.   Exodus 7:20  In February of 2023, I was in a desperate place. I had dealt with migraines for years, but they were getting ridiculous. I got regular migraines, a few a month, but Starting February 21 st of 2021 I had a migraine that lasted over a month. This was terrible, I cannot tell you how awful it was because unless you have experienced something like a migraine and had it last for days and weeks on end you can’t begin to imagine it. But then, in 2022, it was even worse. Around the same time of year, I got another migraine that decided to hold on. And it held on, and it held on, and it held on. I tried a myriad of different medicines. I went all the way to Seattle multiple times a week for migraine infusions. I lived in the dark, with the lights dimmed and the curtains dr...

This image reminded me of Elijah's cloud I write about below “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.’”   Exodus 6:6-7  How do you react when things don’t go as you expected, when God’s timing is not the same as your own? How do you dwell in the waiting place? I wrote about this last April and then again earlier this year . It’s something we can all identify with and will likely experience more than once in our lives. Lots of people in Biblical history found themselves here and engaged with it in different ways.   The first person who came to mind for me today was Abraham. When he was middle aged (ok, he was 75 a...

  The Lord said to Moses, “when you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.   Exodus 4:21  Take another look at the verse for today above. It’s Moses’ commissioning statement. He is being sent and told that he will not be smoothly successful. He will face opposition, but that doesn’t negate God’s directions, say that Moses heard wrong, or that he’s not doing what he was supposed to. God is telling Moses that trouble will come, but God has still sent him and is still with him. That’s all Moses needed to be successful in the face of impossibility, and it’s all we need too.   We know the story. Moses goes back to Egypt and he and Aaron go before Pharaoh, performing signs and wonders, and Pharaoh refuses to do what he is asked to do, he refuses to let God’s people go. The thing that’s interesting about today’s text is that Moses knew this ...