Going for a new start?

Norah Summers July 25, 2024 3 2

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Exodus 24: 1-8 (GNT)

1 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up the mountain to me, you and Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the leaders of Israel; and while you are still some distance away, bow down in worship. 2 You alone, and none of the others, are to come near me. The people are not even to come up the mountain.”

3 Moses went and told the people all the Lord's commands and all the ordinances, and all the people answered together, “We will do everything that the Lord has said.” 4 Moses wrote down all the Lord's commands. Early the next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stones, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 Then he sent young men, and they burned sacrifices to the Lord and sacrificed some cattle as fellowship offerings. 6 Moses took half of the blood of the animals and put it in bowls; and the other half he threw against the altar. 7 Then he took the book of the Covenant, in which the Lord's commands were written, and read it aloud to the people. They said, “We will obey the Lord and do everything that he has commanded.”

8 Then Moses took the blood in the bowls and threw it on the people. He said, “This is the blood that seals the covenant which the Lord made with you when he gave all these commands.”

The journey continues, albeit we have fast-forwarded eight chapters, chapters full of rules and regulations.

The wanderers are still wandering.

Is God going to use the forty years to make all the rules they will need for the settled life they are hoping for in the Promised Land?

The early books of the Old Testament seem to be full of small print, endless instructions.

But now here is another novelty, a New Covenant, no less.

And one that demands not just obedience to rules from on high, but cooperation, engagement, commitment from all people.

A whole new relationship with God.

Impossible for us to read now without remembering Jesus,

who said he was giving us a New Commandment, and later a New Covenant.

New every morning,

fresh interactions, continuing conversations with God, as we journey on.

Prayer:

God of the journey,

with us every step of the way, not just for forty years, but for ever.

We plod along, wondering where the end is.

We tangle ourselves up in rules and regulations, trying to bring order into the uncertainties of life, and often just make more complications.

Keep our eyes on you, we pray,

and on the simple principle of love for you, love for our neighbour,

and remembrance, always, of Jesus, himself the Way, the Truth and the Life.

AMEN