November 19, 2020
Bible Reading – Exodus 34
Exodus 34:11 KJV
Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
As we study through Scripture, it becomes increasingly obvious that God is positively obsessed with a redemption narrative, and He permeates Scripture with examples of it for His glory! The Bible is a revelation of God’s redemption of man. The entire book of Exodus is a beautiful picture of the Gospel, and many of the individual events are reflections of the love, mercy, grace, and redemption shown by Christ on Calvary. As we read through Exodus 34, we notice that God is a God of second chances. When Moses receives the tables of stone for the second time, God reminds him of the character of God. The relationship of God with man does not diminish the Deity of God. It rather proves Him exponentially greater than those gods conceived by the minds of men!
In verses 1-10, we see how forgiving, merciful, gracious, and patient God is as He passionately continued to pursue a relationship and fellowship with Moses and Israel. As God continued to lovingly and wisely instruct Moses from verse 11 on, it seems especially important to highlight the truth that God has already won the victory. The children of Israel didn’t have to fear intense resistance from the enemy. They had only to overcome their own doubts that God was Faithful and True. Their downfall wouldn’t come from the physical strength of nations but from Israel’s BBC focus on their ability to handle a situation and not God’s promises.
It is the faltering of our faith, not God’s failures, that allow defeat into our lives. When facing their enemies, Israel’s focus was on the strength and size of their enemies and their own insufficiencies rather than on the promises of God. Many times our struggles and failures come as we look to the battles and our inabilities (numerous they are for me) rather than to rest on the victory we have in Christ. For the Christian, between a rock and a hard place may be the best place to be. When our insufficiencies are highlighted and our weaknesses magnified, Christ can show how close and how powerful He truly is. Is that not the theme of the Gospel with which God seems obsessed? We face an enemy beyond our power, but God in His love, mercy, grace, and power already won the victory for us. It is His work, not ours, in which we hope! Our victory is already won by Christ Whose ability is far above mine, and I have only to remove my belief that I can handle it and place my faith in the truth that Christ already has done the work for me!
— Eli Faulds