Sunday: Remove my sickness

From Exodus 22-24:

1. It is nice to see that God looks out for the welfare of the widows and orphans. Not only does he care about them, but the way in which he states not to harm them is like saying, "You mess with them, you just messed with me." I love it!

2. In Exodus 23:2 it states that peer pressure can be a bad thing. Interesting...I never realized that there actually was a verse that said it so clearly about how peer pressure can be detrimental.

3. Exodus 23:9 tells us that we should not give Martians a hard time. :-) Seriously, though, it is nice to see that God cares about those who are not native to a land. It definitely is hard to be a foreigner - I know from being in Taiwan for a period of time - getting past the language barrier was really tough.

4. The Israelites were required to celebrate a festival to God. Here in the US we only celebrate two festivals that are dedicated to the Lord: Christmas and Easter. Though I suppose some Americans associate Thanksgiving with God also. Perhaps we should change the name and call it the Feast of Unleavened Turkey, to make sure that all associate it with God.

5. It is interesting that God told the Israelites to let the land lie unplowed and unused on the seventh year. But it was not totally unproductive. He allowed for the poor and the wild animals to glean from what came up there. What a cool way of doing things! It allows the land to replenish its nutrients, while at the same time providing for those who were not as fortunate.

6. Remove my sickness - Exodus 23:25-26 state that if the Israelites follow all of God's commands, that he will bless their food and water and remove sickness from among them. I wonder how long it will take the American people to realize that our relative health and wealth are directly due to our forefathers closely following God's commands. The way things are going now, I would not be surprised to see Avian Flu here in the U.S. (or SARS, or _____ - fill in the blank with your favorite epidemic disease) Also interesting to note is that God says that he will remove sickness, but he does not say that people will not die. The curse of death is still in force due to our original sin.

7. Exodus 23:28 says that God will send the hornet ahead of the Israelites. Sounds like a good premise for a superhero movie. I can just see it now: "God sends The Hornet before the Israelites" - he would probably have a yellow and black striped costume. Actually though, it shows that even at that time hornets were mean little buggers.

8. Wow!!! The leaders of Israel got to see God!!! (It was Jesus that they saw, because no man has seen the Father.) And sapphire under his feet! Cool!!! I bet that was better than any special effects one could ever think up.


Sorry everyone!!!! I just realized that I had been putting the reference as somewhere in Genesis, when in reality, we are actually reading in Exodus. It is fixed now. Sorry for the confusion.