February 3, 2018
Reading: Exodus 34-36; Matthew 23
Exodus 34:6–7 (CSB)
6The Lord
passed in front of him and proclaimed: The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and
gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth,
7maintaining
faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and
sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the fathers’
iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.
Exodus 34 through 36 is the account of Moses meeting the
Lord on the mountain after the golden calf incident, his return to the people
of Israel with his face glowing, and the beginning of the construction of the
tabernacle. While on the mountain, God answered Moses’ request to see His glory
by passing by him. (Remember from Exodus 33 God would do this but not allow
Moses to see His face.) As the Lord passed by Moses, He proclaimed His name to him
and told him what He is like. God’s description helps us to see what He is
like. God is full of compassion and love with a willingness to forgive sin, yet
He is also just and will not leave the guilty unpunished.
Let that sink in. God is a God of compassion and a God of justice.
If we are honest with ourlves, we will recognize that because of the sins in our
own life (all of us have sinned), we should be recipients of God’s punishment.
Yet, because of His love, He provided the sacrifice for our sins--His own Son.
God maintained justice by punishing Jesus as a substitute for you and me. He
maintained love by providing the sacrifice of His Son so that we can be
forgiven and saved. Wow.
Matthew 23:2–3 (CSB)
2“The
scribes and the Pharisees are seated in the chair of Moses.
3Therefore
do whatever they tell you, and observe it. But don’t do what they do, because
they don’t practice what they teach.
In this chapter, Jesus denounced the religious leaders of
His day for their hypocrisy. He told the crowds and His disciples that because
these leaders were teachers of the Bible, they should do what they say.
However, people should not imitate what they do. This is important for us in
our day because sometimes people will see hypocrisy in the lives of religious leaders
and decide that not only are the hypocritical leaders faulty, but the Bible or
the Savior that they claim to represent are also faulty. Here Jesus affirmed
the Word of God while denouncing these teachers of the Word. Don’t let your
faith in the Lord and His Word be shaken by bad messengers.
It is worth our time to look at some of the ways these religious
leaders were hypocrites. Jesus said they did not follow the requirements they put
on the backs of others (v4). They made a show of their religion to impress
others (v5). They sought and enjoyed the honor they received from people
because of their religion (v6-7). They used technical language to justify their
deception of others (v16-22). They carefully gave a tithe of very minute things
but did not worry about the more important matters of God’s Word—justice, mercy,
and faithfulness (v23-24). They polished their image to others but never sought
to change themselves personally (v25-28). They condemned those who rejected God’s
Word in the past while continuing to reject the Lord and His Word in their day (v29-36).
Let us look at this list and ask ourselves whether there are any hypocrisies in us. Let us confess those hypocrisies to the Lord and
forsake them. Let us be more concerned about who we are in the Lord than
how we appear to others.
I am praying for you as we continue to read Scripture
together. Blessings!
Mac
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