The evening devotion for the fifth day is Matthew 5 , which begins the Sermon on the Mount. What is the Law? My assumption has always been that the Law refers to the Ten Commandments, but does it actually refer to and include all of the rules laid out in painstaking detail in Leviticus? Or something else altogether? Who is my brother? Words matter in the Bible, and the word "brother" is probably one that confuses me often. Where the word trips me up in Matthew 5 is where Jesus talks about murder and anger. “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. ( Matthew 5:21-22 ESV ) If I'm reading this literally, the choice of the word "brother" instead of the word ...
Israel Increases Greatly in Egypt. Pharaoh Oppresses Israel. The Birth of Moses. Moses Flees to Midian. God Hears Israel's Groaning. The Burning Bush. Avoid the inevitable fall of oppressors The Bible teaches people to not be oppressors, lest they doom themselves and their posterity. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. ( Exodus 1:9-11 ESV ) The new king of Egypt oppressed Israel, and I know from having read this story before that the king and his people suffered many plagues, with some also ending in a violent death. The cautionary tale tells one person not to oppress another, and what does it mean to oppress? Merriam-Webster def...
A Final Plague Threatened. The Passover. The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn. The Exodus. Institution of the Passover. The Hebrew calendar I learned something new today: There's a Hebrew calendar that is very different from the Gregorian calendar that I use on a daily basis and from the lunar calendar used by countries in Asia. The discovery came from a seed of curiosity about the dates that God called out in his instruction to Moses. And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. ( Exodus 12:17-18 ESV ) Although I expected the Passover to be held from January 14-21 every year, it turns out that the Passover is actually held on different dates every year, us...