Passage
Exodus 20:22-21:11 (ESV)
“you Will Be My Witnesses”
Acts 1:1-11
Key Verse: 1:8
From Slaves to a Holy Nation
Date: Jan. 5, 2016
Daily Bread
Key Verse: 21:2
First, worship in God's way (20:22-26). God helped the people know how to worship. An altar is a place of worship, where people come to offer burnt offerings to receive atonement for their sins. The altar was a holy place where people approach their Creator. God's people had no Bible and few religious traditions. And so God taught them how to worship. To stop idolatry, God did not allow the altar stones to be cut in an attempt to embellish the altar. People were not to worship what their own hands have made. They must worship God alone.
Second, God infuses justice for all (21:1-11). God thought of everything, for he was charting a moral course for his people, lifting them up from being a nation of former slaves to being a holy nation. God equipped them not just with food and water, but with intangible things like laws and justice. God cared about the rights of all individuals, infusing justice for all. In such a society, people could mature spiritually as they sought the Lord. God's law lit a candle in a dark world.
Prayer: Lord, strip my heart of idols and teach me to worship you, your way.
One Word: God thinks of everything. Trust him.
