Wisdom International Devotionals

by Seth Davey

  The Art of Worship Exodus 20:25 “If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it.”   God’s words in this Scripture have so many implications on the limits and purpose of human artistry that I’m not even sure which way to proceed from it, but let’s start by admitting that the very God Who made us in His image has placed limits on our imitative capacity. We are not creators, friend, but copyists. We don’t speak things into existence; we shape and form what God has made. So while God has given us artistry as a gift, and while it provides for us a context for expressing worship in diverse ways, it comes with bounds.    If you wield your tool on it you profane it .  Now, I wouldn’t dare extend this rule beyond its immediate and very specific context of altar-building, but in an age where freedom of expression has become synonymous with authenticity, the principle undergirding this particular c...

  A Deep Light Exodus 20:20-21 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.   Because I typically try to only write three or four devotionals per chapter of Scripture, implementing a broader, more impressionistic approach to these reflections than a verse-by-verse expositional one, I’d like to jump past the next five commandments and add a few thoughts on the final two paragraphs of Exodus 20 that include in my opinion some of Moses’ richest illustrations yet.    The people stood far off, while Moses drew near . What a line. What a contrast. Moses tells us in verse 20 that the thunder and lightning and trumpet blast and smoke terrified many of the people, causing them to stand back, but there’s more to it than that. This distance between God and these unbelievers isn’t just a spatial gap, but a sp...

  A Word on Honor Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”   Honor isn’t a gift you bestow on someone else, but an intrinsic reward following a commendable action. For instance, the American troops who bravely stormed the beaches of Normandy inherited honor by their sacrifice even before government agents decorated their uniforms with Purple Heart badges. The martyr who prays and preaches faithfully and gets thrown into a lion’s den inherits honor for his good faith even before being crowned in heaven. That’s the gist of that common phrase, “virtue is its own reward,” though the phrase itself needs revising. Virtue is the action; honor is the reward. So we could translate this Exodus 20 rule in this way: “Child, the many sacrifices your father and mother have made to nurture you in this world have brought them honor. So thank them for their sacrifice! Affirm the honor due them!”   But th...

  Blessed Rest Exodus 20:9-10 a  & 11 b “Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. … Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”   It strikes me that we’re four commandments into Exodus 20 and God has effectively been giving us a refresher course on Genesis 1. Genesis opens with the words, “In the beginning, God,” which is rule number one in a nutshell: God  is . Then, the very next words are “…created the heavens and the earth,” which is rule number two in a nutshell: worship the Lord as Creator and not created things. Then, in Genesis 1:27, Moses writes: “So God created man in his own image,” which is rule number three in a nutshell: You bear God’s Name—don’t take that vainly. Now, fast forward to the beginning of Genesis 2 where God rests from His six-day toil and blesses the seventh day as a Sabbath rest, which is rule number four in a nutshell: work with godlike vigor for six days...

  What’s in a Name? Exodus 20:7 “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”   Moses further clarifies the meaning of this commandment in Deuteronomy 6:13 by commanding the people, “It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.” So narrowly speaking, this idea of taking the name of the Lord in vain is relating to making vows by His Name and not keeping them. But in light of the fact that this next commandment closely resembles the first and progresses from it, let me add that failing to keep our vows is only a fraction of the way we take God’s Name vainly from day to day.      Consider another application that hits closer to home in our crooked and perverse generation. The first rule, “I am the LORD your God,” relates to God’s Being, as we said, and this rule proceeds logically from that, “You shall not take the name of the LORD...

  The Law in Essence Exodus 20:2-3 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”   Before we take the plunge into the depths of this ocean of God’s Self-revelation called the Ten Commandments, bear in mind that no matter how deep we proceed, we’ll never hit the bottom. And God has effectively begun His injunction by taking us to the deepest point of all, to the very bedrock upon which all human life and morality rests. While the last nine of these rules relate to our  thinking   and  doing , this first commandment relates to His   Being —the Wellspring of all thought and action.    “I am the LORD,” writes Moses, and that’s the pivotal starting point. We can’t learn Who God is until we’ve grasped the simple, fundamental reality  that   God is. God  is , even if we disregard Him. God   is , even if we don’t like what He says. God   is ...

  Further In Exodus 19:21-22 And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the LORD to look and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near to the LORD consecrate themselves, lest the LORD break out against them.”   Why did God station an angel at the border of Eden to bar its entrance? As a symbol that Adam and Eve’s sin had made a severance in their communion with the Holy One. Why did God tell Moses to remove his sandals at the fiery bush theophany? As a symbol that no human artifice can sully the hallowed ground on which God treads. Why will God later command the constructors of the tabernacle to place a dividing curtain between the inner sanctuary and the rest of the universe? As a symbol that we, in our sinfulness, are unworthy to gaze upon the Lord in His glory. Time and time again through the Old Testament, through all the diverse eras of human history, there has been some symbolical door or gate or veil or mountain pa...

  Lead Me to Calvary Exodus 19:16-17 On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain.   I’m trying to put myself in Moses’ shoes here, trying to tremble with the quaking rock that towers overhead, but I just can’t. The imagery, the language, the visual descriptions grab me like tornado winds and thrust me elsewhere, to a different place and time, to a grander theophany, and the whole scene is transfigured before me.     On the morning of the third day .  It’s a quiet, eerie morning; there’s an uneasy hush over the town; the sun hasn’t yet risen, but there’s a little candle burning in a kitchen and a woman is hurriedly preparing balms. She slips out the door and disappears into the shadows, unnoticed by a sleeping world....

  The Gospel Call Exodus 19:3 b , 5 b -6 a The LORD called to him out of the mountain, saying, … “’If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’”   Theologians have often debated whether this Exodus 19 covenant here is a conditional covenant, predicated on the obedience of the people, or an unconditional covenant, predicated on God’s faithfulness in spite of Israel’s disobedience, but the condition itself strikes me in a new way as I read it. Notice that this invitation isn’t just given to Moses and the other priests, but to all the people. We could read it like this: “If  all of you   obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you’ll be my treasured possession among all peoples.” But one false prophet will sully the holiness for everyone. One wicked king will spoil the kingdom blessing. One unjust judge will forfei...

  Supreme Court Justice Exodus 18:24-26 So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he said. Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves.   A lesser man would’ve sat in Moses’ judicial seat day after day, clocked in long hours wielding the gavel, and become addicted to the sight of that long line of people seeking him   alone   for guidance. A lesser man would’ve responded to Jethro’s ‘advice’ in a bombastic retort—“Oh priest of Midian, does your staff turn rivers to blood and part seas? Has Pharaoh ever groveled at your knees for mercy? Get back in line with all the others!” A lesser man would’ve argued with Jethro that adjudicating for the people is an arduous task, a God-ordained one, and not many are qualified for it. A lesser man w...

  An Intervention Exodus 18:13 & 17-18 The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. … Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone.”   In an ethical sense, Moses is doing a wonderful thing here. In fact, I can’t think of a nobler way for a good shepherd to treat his flock than to watch over them from sunup to sundown. Didn’t our very Lord forego eating and sleeping in order to minister to the long lines of people who constantly wanted His attention? It’s  good  that Moses is down here in the thick of the action. He isn’t like those cult leaders who live in mansions while their followers live in tents, or like those celebrities who pamper themselves in VIP lounges and only address the fans who pay a premium to meet them. He’s among the crowd, at the same...

  The Tie that Binds Exodus 18:10-12 Jethro said, “Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh. … Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.” And Jethro … brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.   As Jethro sits down among his new brethren to break bread with them for the first time, to partake in the manna of God’s everlasting favor, it strikes me that he isn’t here because he’s a man of the cloth or because he’s the highest ranking member in Midian or even because he’s now a blood-relative of God’s chosen miracle-man. He’s here, breaking the symbolical bread of Christ’s covenant, because he’s confessed with his mouth and believed in his heart that Jehovah is the true and living God.    I love how Moses continues to describe Jethro a...

  Coming Around Exodus 18:1 & 6-7 Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt. … And when he sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her,” Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent.   We learn in chapter 18 that Moses had left his wife Zipporah and their two sons with her father, Jethro, before arriving in Egypt, so I can only imagine how nourishing this family reunion must have been for Moses’ psychiatric state. Evidently, Jethro had been keeping tabs on Moses. Maybe he had a spy or a merchant-friend who’d inquire about Moses every time he was in Egypt on business, sparking up conversations in the market place with passersby, listening to the chitter-chatter in the public square,  maybe eve...

  Pitching In Exodus 17:9-10, 12 b So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. … Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.   One significant reality we rediscover over and over again throughout the biblical narrative is that God always has a remnant among the people of earth and often that remnant is a whole lot bigger than it seems.   Yes, we’ve heard this mixed multitude bicker constantly and blame God for taking them out of Egypt, but Moses is far from alone in his faithfulness. Aaron’s been by his side since day one, and here in verse 8 we meet a man named Joshua who’s evidently developed a reputation for unwavering courage. Notice as well that Jo...

  Strong as a Rock Exodus 17:3-4 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.”   If you’ve raised kids who are now adults, what was the most trying stage of that mentorship? Was it the terrible toddler years when all they did was throw fits and whine about everything and you couldn’t reason with them? Or was it the high-school years, when they’d roll their eyes at everything you’d say, and everyone else seemed to be making an impression on their character but you? Or was it the know-it-all college years when they finally enjoyed a little independence, and they started confronting your own fixed ideas about life and God and the world, and they were high on ideals but short on experience? I’ve not yet had high-school and college-age children ...

  How Long, O Lord?! Exodus 17:1 a All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the LORD.   Don’t we wish the Lord would come back through the clouds today and meet us in the air? We’d let the whole world disappear beneath us, and devotionals like these along with it, just to look up in the heavens and see the Son of Man descending for His people. I imagine that Moses and Aaron are feeling that same sort of yearning as well, wondering as the days go by why the Promised Land isn’t right around the corning—what they’re still so far away. I wonder how many times Moses asked the Lord in the quiet of his heart, or possibly in a sudden outburst of frustration not recorded for us, something like this: “Father, You blazed a path for Your people even through the sea; You parted the deep, impassable waters just for us; part this wilderness too! Fly us to Canaan on eagle’s wings! Don’t carry us along slowly; d...

  Treasures in the Dust Exodus 16:33-34 And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the LORD to be kept throughout your generations.” As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept.   Off and on over the past few years, my wife and I have watched a show on the History channel called “The Curse of Oak Island,” a show that documents the Lagina brothers’ ten-year long search for the infamous treasure trove supposedly buried on Oak Island. While they’ve uncovered multiple underground shafts and tunnels and stone roads, and while they’ve excavated a few interesting artifacts like British infantry buttons and Templar crosses and ancient digging tools, they haven’t exactly struck  gold . Nevertheless, I find the idea riveting that some mysterious group from ages past would go through all the fuss to sail the ocean blue, find a covert island, and dig extravagant chambers, all to hide a treasure. But ho...

  Mark My Word Exodus 16:26-27 “Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.” On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none.   Why do you think so many pilgrims disregarded Moses’ clear and simple instruction here? Maybe some just tuned him out as irrelevant, the way we tune out an airplane stewardess who gives those discomforting ‘in case of crash’ precautions that we just   know   won’t apply to our flight. Maybe others listened to Moses’ instructions, intently even, but only in the way that those hungry crowds listened to Jesus’ at Capernaum. They just wanted a free meal. They didn’t care about the spiritual meaning being represented through the food. Still, perhaps others ventured out on Saturday looking for manna not because they’d ignored Moses’ instructions, nor because they cared little for spiritual things, but because they thought they could bend God’s will to their whims. They...

  Heaven Sent Exodus 16:10 b -12 They looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. And the LORD said to Moses, “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.’”   Last week, as I headed up to my favorite spot in the North Carolina mountains, I heard the sound of rushing air out my back window and realized my back tire was losing air fast. The nearest auto shop was ten miles away, and I only made it a mile before my truck tire completely untethered and I had to pull off the road just before damaging the metal frame. Thankfully, I still had cell-phone service, so I called an auto shop and asked if they towed, which they didn’t, but they gave me the number of a local farmer who did. It took him a couple hours to get to me, but  any   help would do at that point—especially with it ...

  In Between Exodus 16:1 They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt.   I’m aware that the specific name of ‘Sin’ in reference to this specific geographic location is not the same word that we translate as ‘sin’ in our English language, but the scene here is too richly symbolic to interpret by the letter alone. So rise higher with me today, friend. Look down on this word as if from a mountain. Read it from a bird’s-eye view. See it as a depiction of your life of faith. Because we too are making a pilgrimage through the wilderness of sin, through the broken, collapsed space between Eden and Heaven, through the rocky terrain of temptation, and the sanctifying journey is a perilous one.    Some fall headlong and get stranded on the rocks. Some stumble for a time and regain their footing years...

  Meaning, as a Rule Exodus 15:25 b  & 27 There the LORD made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them. …Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.   Philosophers and sages from every tribe, tongue, and nation have tried to uncover the meaning of life, dancing around the ruins of Eden as it were, searching for the gated entrance, hoping their volumes of words and theories will metamorphosis into keys, but not finding the heart of the Garden: always approaching the question from the outside looking in, rather than from the inside looking out. And it’s always been so simple.   The meaning of life always begins with a rule. For Adam and Eve, God made a rule not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And He didn’t make that rule to tease them for the whole of their lives, but to give them the most powerful, godlike agency of all: the power to choose. An...

Fight or Flight Exodus 14:13-14 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. … The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”   Some people are fighters by nature. People like Peter, who saw devils sweeping in under the cover of night and ran at them with a sword. And David, who saw Goliath puffing out his iron-clad chest and raced to the nearest river to gather stones. And Samson, who took down thousands of Philistines in his final act. Other people are runners by nature though. People like Nicodemus, who remained silent in an assembly of hell-bent elders. And Jonah, who decided that eking out a Robinson Crusoe-type existence on a lonely island was better than delivering the gospel to vicious people. And John Mark, who talked a good game before his first missionary journey but didn’t have the stomach for the high seas when he got there.    But I don’t mean to honor the fighter-fol...

If the Bones are Good Exodus 13:19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.”   We’re supposed to be in Exodus 15, not Exodus 13, but I somehow overlooked this reflection when transcribing devotionals from my journal, and it’s a peculiar scene in the Exodus journey that I don’t want to miss. Do you remember a few months ago, when we were going through Genesis together, in that scene where old Jacob reunited with his long lost son, Joseph, and I pointed out that the principle of discipleship is not replacement but advancement—that no saint ever fills the shoes of his predecessor but rather carries the work further? Well, I can’t think of a richer, more poignant illustration of that principle than the sight of Moses carrying Joseph’s four-hundred-year-old bones with him to the Promised Land, can you?   Imagine it with me. As most pilgrims ...