Bible Reading Plan – January 22-28
This week we continue reading through Exodus. While the beginning of Exodus is quite famous, and rightly so, the book itself takes what seems to be a quick detour. The first chapters are filled with action and drama, as God redeems his people from the wicked Pharaoh and demonstrates his superior power and might. Many of the chapters we will read this week, however, take up issues that seem unimportant and monotonous. In these texts, God gives to Moses all of the specifications for the building of the Tabernacle and the robes that Aaron and other priests are to wear.
Why does Exodus do this? Even granting the importance of those specifications, why record every single one of them? Why not just report that the specifications were given, and move on with the story?
Exodus refuses to skip over these details, not for the sake of the details per se, but for the sake of stating the details. No, we don’t need these details, as Christ has ended our reliance upon the law and sacrificial system. We do need to know that there were details, however, and we need to experience something of the rigor of those details. Our God is not to be approached in a flippant manner, and worshiped through whatever means we find practical or effective for our own devised ends. True, he has made a way through Christ that we might be cleansed by him, and because of this we may “come as we are.” But as we grow in Christ we learn more of the fear of God, and the emphasis that Scripture places on how God is to be worshiped should give us pause. Do we enter before him flippantly, without thought and care, or do we seek to worship God in a manner prescribed by him, in Spirit and truth?
The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:19-24; ESV)
Videos for the week from The Bible Project:
