Salty Zebra

 Have you ever asked God for a sign? How about a really specific sign? How about a flashing neon sign? Yep. That was me. I did that. You see, two years ago the radiologists' measurements on my MRIs showed that my tumor had grown, significantly. Between the MRI that we'd settled on as our baseline, taken about four months after my resection surgery, and the one taken in June of 2024, there was about a 76% increase in volume. Considering you only need to see 20% increase to be considered in "progression" and moving on to the next stage of treatment, this was a lot, even though the tumor itself was still pretty tiny, only about 1 sq cm, so the growth was pretty tiny as well. At that point, my surgeon referred me over to the Tumor Center and said that I'd likely need radiation treatment, though he wasn't an expert and deferred to their wisdom.   After my first, not great, appointment, we were assigned to the head of Neuro Radiology Oncology who was an amazing ble...

  Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to their tent. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.   Exodus 33:10-11  Have you ever heard the phrase, “Familiarity breeds contempt” or its counterpart, “You don’t know what you have until it’s gone”? Sometimes we become so used to a really special, wonderful thing, that we no longer see its special wonderfulness. It’s just regular, the way it is supposed to be. This morning, I’m considering this when it comes to prayer.   Moses had the privilege of speaking to God face to face as a man does with a friend. This was such a wonderful and amazing thing that, when Moses went to the tent of meeting to do this, all the people would come and stand at the entrance to their tents and worship God. Imagine if th...

“They said to me, ‘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.’ So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”  Exodus 32:23-24  In case you aren’t familiar with the story, let me catch you up. God used Moses to lead the people of Israel out of captivity in Egypt and through the Red Sea, bringing the sea back down upon their enemies and destroying them completely. Then, knowing that the people were not yet ready to be tested in battle, He led them into the wilderness where they were to learn from Him and grow to trust Him. And there was a lot of growing to do! At every turn, at every hiccup, they whined and complained about ever having left Egypt, where they were horribly treated and enslaved. Never did they come to God and humbly say, “We have a need and we trust that You will provide for us...

  The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. Exodus 31:16  God has done a beautiful thing for us throughout history, He has led by example. He has done things that He did not need to do simply so that we would have an example to follow because we would need to do them. Today we look at one of these examples in the Sabbath.  Originally, in Genesis when we read about God creating the world, God demonstrated for us taking a rest on the seventh day. Was He tired? Had He hit His limit and needed a break? No. God doesn’t get tired, but He knew we would. He knew that if left to our own devices, we would run ourselves into the ground. In addition, He knew that when we got to working the ground and doing “jobs,” that we would get the mistaken impression that we were providing for ourselves. Even the Israelites who were being provided with their daily bread through manna in the wilderness might lose track of it...

  So I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. Exodus 29:44-45  In today’s text (Exodus 28-29) we focus on the consecration and role of the priests of Israel – Aaron and his sons. I was drawn into the illustration and correlation between this text and how we, as Christians are, “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9). Charles Spurgeon, in one of his many sermons, fleshed out this correlation and showed me some interesting insights.   The consecration of Aaron, and his descendants that followed him, began with a ceremonial cleansing . They would be washed fully outside of the entrance to the Tabernacle. In order to serve and minister before God, the priests needed to be cleansed from their s...

  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. ...