365 Reflections

Deuteronomy 24:17-18 (ESV)   “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow’s garment in pledge,  18 but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this. Oh how much better we may treat one another if we all remembered that who we are is the result of God's grace and goodness. Israel was given many laws regarding how to treat each other in Deuteronomy. Here in chapter 24, all of the laws are horizontal in nature. Do not take essential items in pledge. Do not kidnap and slave trade another human being. Leave lots of leftovers from harvest for the poor. Let the punishment fit the crime (Deuteronomy 25). The interesting thing about this particular set of laws is that right int he middle of the list is a call to remember where they came from. The Lord redeemed them from slavery in Egypt. Yet how did they get to Egypt in the first place? B...

We come now to the laws about sin offerings in Leviticus. This is the portion we like to skim through but we'd miss out on some important realities about sin that God is revealing. Leviticus 4:1–3 (ESV) And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If anyone sins unintentionally in any of the Lord ’s commandments about things not to be done, and does any one of them, 3 if it is the anointed priest who sins, thus bringing guilt on the people, then he shall offer for the sin that he has committed a bull from the herd without blemish to the Lord for a sin offering. The first sin offering dealt with is that which is made for "unintentional" sins - sins you do not realize you've committed. Leviticus 4 runs down the offerings for the people in order of importance beginning with the "anointed priest" (verse 3), down to the "common person" (verse 27). Though each offering reduces in value from the anointed priest ...

Exodus 21:1–6 (ESV) “Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. 2 When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. 3 If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out alone. 5 But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ 6 then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever. The first thing to recognize when we come to difficult texts in the Old Testament is to remember one simple thing: We are not living in the Ancient world.  Today if I lose my job, there are unemployment offices to visit, food stamps to collect and soup...

The Christian faith does not give you an excuse to check your intellect and common sense at the door. These were given to you by God who made you in His image and likeness. Use them, don't disregard them. Paul rarely was miraculously delivered from trouble. Very rarely. Here in Acts 25, after 2 years of sitting in a Caesarean prison, he faces his accusers once again before a newly placed Governor name Festus. Paul again states his defense but knows there's a chance he could be set free only to be ambushed by the Jews seeking his life. Here's Paul's defense: Acts 25:8–11 (ESV) Paul argued in his defense, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense.” 9 But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, “Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and there be tried on these charges before me?” 10 But Paul said, “I am standing before Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried. To the Jews I have do...