The last time we looked at Exodus, we ended with the glorious and holy event where God Himself told His people what he wanted them to do in simply “10 Commandments”.

We are all most familiar with it but was that all of God’s instructions? Did God have anything else to say? Let’s see…

Bible Passage:  Exodus 21-24

What follows after the 10 commandments is a series of instructions that God had for the people’s daily lives.

When you read them, you might find some of the practices strange.  You might also start wondering why was it that God bothered about telling them how they ought to deal with:

• Servants and Masters
• Personal Injuries
• Injuries Involving Animals
• Problems with Personal Property
• Treatment of People including the Widows and Orphans
• How to Ensure Justice in Disputes
• Even How They Ought to Take Care of Their Land

You can read all this from Chapters 21-23.

What do you think of some of the instructions of God?  Tell me.

Some of these instructions were right for those times and days.  But the fact of the mater is – the spirit of how many of the problems are to be resolved serves as principles that we should live and act with today.

Yah… I know … very ‘cheem’.  And I would not pretend to know how to translate everyone of these instructions to be applied to in our daily lives.

But in these passages, some things became very apparent:

The Rest on the 7th Day

The Sabbath – a day of Rest – is not placed on the 7th day without a purpose.

Of course it is the Lord’s Holy Day that He specially blessed and we are to keep this commandment. But here we are also instructed to rest on the 7th day from our work (23:12).  We humans are not built to work endlessly like machines.

But the irony is that despite having more machines and advanced technology today than anytime in the history of man, we are busier than ever.  In our pursuit for the next dollar, the next big thing – we toil and labour ceaselessly – forgetting to come and rest from our labours in the Lord on His special day.

Even when we are in Church – we are not there.  Our minds are away with our work`and not on God.

So this is a great reminder for us today.  And that the object of our worship be only God and not any other (23:13)

The Major Feasts of Israel

It also does seem strange that in giving directions in many areas of the people’s daily lives that suddenly, God instructed them to observe 3 major feasts.  They are the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of Harvest and Feast of Ingathering (23:14-18).

But then upon reflection – it does not sound strange at all because God wanted to make sure the people understood that these were VERY IMPORTANT dates in their lives for this is when they “appear before the LORD GOD” (23:17).

What is the equivalent of these Feasts today?

Our Spiritual Meetings.

Every year, we all know we have 2 Spiritual Meetings.  The dates are announced way in advanced in the beginning of the year and our next one is just a few weeks away.  In case you are wondering – it is from…

29 May (Fri) evening till 31 May (Sun).

This is a special time for us to set aside to appear before our God and to give Him our full attention and worship Him in Spirit and Truth.

Like the Major Feasts, the Spiritual Meetings is a time for us to remember God’s grace – in His Salvation and Blessings for us.

Have you already made your preparations for this coming feast?  Are you ready for it?

We can see that when the people were prepared properly to worship the Lord and they were ready for it, God will take the opportunity to reveal His words directly to them (Chapter 24).  And it is also here that we read that “they saw the God of Israel”.

Let us prepare ourselves to attend the FULL Spiritual Meeting to meet our Lord there.

Give Him your time.  He deserves our complete worship.