"Your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing." - 2 Thessalonians 1:3b

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Exodus 33-36

In Exodus 34, God gives Moses a series of instructions by which the Israelites should live. Some of these are profound, like "Do not make cast idols" and "Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest" (Exodus 34:17, 21), but then there are rules like "Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk" (Exodus 34:26). Why lump in such a mundane stipulation with rules that directly refer back to God's original acts of creation? And for that matter, what's the big deal about cooking a young goat in its mother's milk (and does this leave open the possibility of cooking a young goat in a different female goat's milk?)?

Frankly, I have no idea why this rule made the list (and neither do the editors of my Zondervan study Bible). But that's not really the point; the point is that it mattered to God. More broadly, God concerns Himself not only with issues of the greatest significance but also with the most minute of details. He is a God who knows every last inch of every last corner of His creation, and if He takes an interest in the way food is prepared, we know that we have His full attention and faithfulness in matters of eternal importance too.

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