As we continue to read on in our study, we’re going to pick up the story of Moses & Israelfollowing their unforgettable escape from slavery. What we’re going to see is that although they’ve gotten out of Egypt… it’s going to take God some more very deliberate work to get Egypt out of them. In the book Walking with God, Jeff Caving & Tim Gray use Moses’ words at the end of the Exodus to explain what’s going on here:

God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart… he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna… that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. (Deuteronomy 8:2-3)

Moses sermon gives us insight into what God was doing with Israel in the desert. The goal of the Exodus was not simply freedom from slavery, but freedom for the Israelites to know and serve the Lord with all their heart.

Cavins/Gray, Walking with God, page 75

As I mentioned in last week’s video introduction to this section of our study, you’re going to come across some drier passages during this section. In Exodus 20-26, God is establishing the parameters of the covenant and begins to outline what right worship is going to look like. Don’t give up on your reading – even this seemingly obscure passages set the stage for what we still know and practice to this day. Fr. Paul Moret recorded a wonderful video “Is There a Particular Way God Wants us to Worship Him?” earlier this year that might help you place some of what’s going on in these chapters.

All of that being said, here’s the readings for this week:

Have a blessed week!