Friday, July 14th 2006
Read: Exodus 24
The people of God finally decide to accept Yahweh’s covenant offer. Covenant means “to cut.” Covenant is a bloody deal and it always involves sacrifice. Whether it is Abraham and God, or a Junior Soldier swearing in ceremony covenant involves blood and sacrifice.
And it appears that the people of God are up for it. They respond in verse 7 to the conditions with a corporate affirmation: “We will do everything Yahweh has commanded. We will obey.”
True or False: No one has ever seen God and lived.
If you said true, look at verse 11: “And though Israel’s leaders saw God, He did not destroy them. In fact, they shared a meal together in God’s presence!”
What? They saw God? That is enough to blow those people away who say that no one ever saw God. Not only did they see God but the leaders of Israel had supper with Yahweh!
Can you imagine that meal? I can’t. I can’t imagine the menu. I can’t imagine the dinner conversation. I can’t imagine “grace.” I just can’t get my head around it (yet).
And He didn’t destroy them. I don’t know, but it is probably a story that will shake your view of God. It should.
Intimacy is one of the benefits of covenant. God can trust you with some details He normally doesn’t share with everyone else. And the covenant conditions, those things in our lives that we change to align with God’s purposes and characters, allow us to enter into His presence.
If Soldiers around the world got their heads around this, I suspect there’d be a Revolution. Think about it. There are more than a million Senior Soldiers and nearly half a million Junior Soldiers. If 1.5 million Soldiers all fulfilled the conditions of covenant and began enjoying intimacy with Yahweh the effects would be catastrophic to the Enemy and beneficial to the Kingdom. Contagious love and compassion would overflow to hurting people.
The Salvation Army has already “invaded” 111 countries. I suspect this infectious love would spill over into a bunch more. Are you in?
Q: What have you sacrificed for covenant relationship with God?
What conditions must you fulfill to enjoy intimacy with God?
Youth Department