Be Still And Know

Exodus 32:1 When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. “Come on,” they said, “make us some gods who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.” Moses spent 40 days and nights on top of Mount Sinai receiving the instructions which were to be the foundation of life for the people of Israel. Not only was he given the Ten Commandments but also detailed plans for the building of the tabernacle, which would be the focus of the people’s worship. Forty days and nights was, however, too long for the people, who became desperately impatient. They became restless and decided to look for some different gods to lead them. Incredibly, Aaron, Moses’ brother and trusted co-leader, took the lead in this and commanded the people to bring him their gold rings so that they could be melted down in order to make a calf out of them. He then set up an altar so that the people could worship their newly

Exodus 23:9 'You must not oppress foreigners. You know what it’s like to be a foreigner, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt.' The people of Israel had lived in Egypt for 400 years, and so they had a huge experience of being foreigners. Throughout that time, they knew that their true home was elsewhere and that one day they would enter the land that the Lord had given them. This meant that, of all people, they had reason to be sensitive to the vulnerabilities of foreigners in their community. Time and again, the law of Moses reminds them of this important responsibility. When I lived in India, I had the huge privilege of living with an Indian family. They generously took me into their home where we shared meals, worship, leisure and a lot of laughs. They couldn’t have been more generous. But the truth is that I didn’t speak their language at all at first, and was never fluent. Their customs were very unfamiliar to me and I often felt rather lost. It was only the kindness and consi

Exodus 23:8 'Take no bribes, for a bribe makes you ignore something that you clearly see. A bribe makes even a righteous person twist the truth.' I had never really thought about bribes until I spent two years living in India. There we spoke about bribes on a regular basis because bribery was a normal part of life. Soon after I arrived, a servant girl was murdered near where we lived. Her body was found at the bottom of a well. I was very alarmed by this, and was relieved when my Indian host told me that the murderer had been found. I asked what would happen to them and my gentle, gracious Christian host explained in a very straightforward manner that nothing would happen because he had bribed the police. I am not for a moment suggesting that our justice system is perfect, but I was really shocked. Bribery takes place in many countries on a regular basis. In India, it was well known that the only way to get a delivery of full gas canisters was to bribe the driver. Bribery was just a normal part of life an

Exodus 23:5 'If you see that the donkey of someone who hates you has collapsed under its load, do not walk by. Instead, stop and help.' These laws make fascinating reading. Here the people are told that they have a responsibility to other people, whoever they are. If you see the donkey of your enemy struggling, the immediate ungodly response would be to say of the owner: “Serves him right. Just what he deserves.” But God declares that our responsibility is to give practical support to other people whether they are our close friends or enemies. This law reminds us of the words of Jesus, who went even further. We are not merely to be caring towards our neighbours but we have a responsibility to love them. This command, more than any other, shows that Jesus was turning normal human thinking upside down. Jesus seemed to take it for granted that his followers would have enemies, just as he had throughout his ministry. There is no way of avoiding that. But the person who walks in Jesus’ steps has a completely d

Exodus 23:2-3 'When you are called to testify in a dispute, do not be swayed by the crowd to twist justice. And do not slant your testimony in favour of a person just because that person is poor.' Telling the truth is absolutely crucial in a healthy society. However uncomfortable and awkward the truth might be, it needs to be proclaimed and followed at all times, or society is in peril. That means that we must not bend the truth even when we are seeking to help vulnerable people. When I first read this verse I thought it was a misprint. Surely the greatest danger is of bending the truth because a person is powerful and influential. But in saying that we mustn’t slant the truth in favour of a poor person, God is saying that we mustn’t play around with the truth whoever the person might be. However sympathetic we might be to a vulnerable and needy person, it is still vital for us to uphold the truth. I have no doubt that we all seek to tell the truth. We have been brought up to do so and we know it’s the co

Exodus 20:13-17 God said, “You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely against your neighbour. You must not covet your neighbour’s house.” These blunt commandments are even more brief in Hebrew, where a better translation would be: “No murder. No adultery. No stealing.” In quick succession, God sets out the activities that must be stopped if a community is to thrive. Having respect for human life, marriage, property and truth-telling are foundational to a peaceful and harmonious society, and coveting what others have can only be destructive. On first reading, the trouble with these commandments is that they sound so negative. But the reason for this is, quite clearly, because God’s desire is the best. He won’t settle for anything less than that and so he is ruthlessly opposed to anything that will spoil life for his much- loved children. The sanctions showed how serious he was. Murder would lead to capital punishment, adultery to stoning and the thie

Exodus 20:8-10, 12 'Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God... Honour your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.' Here are the first two positive commandments. The first three declared that we shouldn’t put any other gods in front of the true God, shouldn’t make idols and shouldn’t blaspheme. Having established those foundational principles, we are given positive guidance on how to build a secure, God-focused society. The first is by ordering our time properly, and the second is through building strong families. Respect for the Sabbath is far more important than merely having a day off each week. That is undoubtedly a wise and healthy thing to do but the principle reason for respecting the Sabbath is that, by so doing, we put God in the place that is rightfully his. The Sabbath day is dedicated to the

Exodus 20:6-7 God said: “I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands. You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name.” The word commandment sounds demanding and perhaps even harsh, and so we need to be clear that God’s motivation was lavish, unfailing love. When I think back to my childhood, I recall that my father had some very clear principles. The most major amongst them was showing respect to my mother, and if I said or did anything that suggested less, I would know about it! There is absolutely no question that his reaction was based on love for my mother – and also for me, although it could seem and feel quite harsh at the time. In a similar way, God insists that his name must be given absolute respect, and the penalties for showing disrespect would be very severe. Some devout Jews have taken this commandment to mean that we shouldn’t use the word God at all, but that seems unnecessary

Exodus 20:2-4 “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. You must not have any other god but me. You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.” The Ten Commandments are remarkable in many ways but possibly the most amazing fact is that they are so short. Since they were delivered to Moses, governments have laid down tens of millions of laws, but these ten commandments offer us the solid foundation for any society which wants to build its life in a godly and sustainable way. Whichever way you say the word, ‘commandments’ don’t sound jolly! They sound severe and restrictive, so we need to remind ourselves of those words with which they begin. God reminds his people that he is their saviour and was the one who led them miraculously out of Egypt. It was because of his love for them that he gave them these laws, which would ensure that they would continue to be blessed. Any loving parent

Exodus 19:5-6 The Lord said, “Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.” When God spoke these words to Moses, it was exactly two months since the people had left Egypt. They were getting used to their new life in the desert and God wanted to establish the basis of their relationship with him. He took Moses up Mount Sinai to give him the foundational principles upon which their new life should be built and, at the heart of it, was the word ‘covenant’. God wanted to care for his people and provide for them on the basis of a two-way relationship. God would care for them but, at the same time, they needed to understand their own responsibilities before God. These would be expressed not only in the Ten Commandments, which God would soon give to Moses, but also in a large number of other regulations. The whole Bible is based on the principle of coven

Exodus 19:4 The Lord said, “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You know how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” The eagle is a huge bird with a wingspan of more than two metres. It was an impressive sight for the Israelites as they walked through the desert and it is easy to understand how it was often seen as a symbol of God’s loving provision. In Moses’ final speech before the people entered the promised land, he described God in this beautifully tender way: “He found them in a desert land, in an empty, howling wasteland. He surrounded them and watched over them; he guarded them as he would guard his own eyes. Like an eagle that rouses her chicks and hovers over her young, so he spread his wings to take them up and carried them safely on his pinions” (Deuteronomy 32:10-11). God perfectly understood and provided for the needs of his people. We all know times when we are totally out of our depth. We can’t cope and we need God’s peace and strength. When an eaglet is learning to f

Proverbs 28:2 'When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily. But wise and knowledgeable leaders bring stability.' Every nation needs good leaders, but the many pages of human history show that they are normally in short supply. The Old Testament offers us a depressing procession of inadequate leaders, occasionally punctuated by one who was godly and able. In Hosea, God summed up the situation when he declared: “Burning like an oven, they consume their leaders. They kill their kings one after another, and no one cries to me for help” (Hosea 7:7). It was a tragic situation and led to centuries of moral rot, to use the colourful language of this proverb. There is no doubt that there is plenty of moral rot in our own society. The massive amount of substance abuse, the breakup of the family, the prevalence of child exploitation, the phenomenal levels of fraud and the huge rise in knife crime would be just a few of indicators of a society that is in a poor way. In such a situation we n

Proverbs 27:25-27 'After the hay is harvested and the new crop appears and the mountain grasses are gathered in, your sheep will provide wool for clothing, and your goats will provide the price of a field. And you will have enough goats’ milk for yourself, your family, and your servant girls.' These verses give us a delightful insight into a rural way of life which has a rhythm that can be totally missed by those of us who live in towns and cities. The life of a farmer is an interesting interplay between God’s provision and sheer hard work. God graciously causes the grass to grow, but there is a huge amount of work involved in drying it out and making the hay. The grass and hay sustain the sheep and goats who will provide wool and milk to clothe and nourish the family. It’s a wonderful cycle of life – but nobody should have any illusions that it’s a quiet life. The truth is, of course, that however far away we may live from a rural life, we all depend upon that relationship between God’s provision and h

Proverbs 27:21 'Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but a person is tested by being praised.' I wonder how you respond when someone praises you. Perhaps you are being praised for your excellent work, sporting skills, kindness or reliability. The writer of Proverbs makes the interesting observation that such praise is as critical a test of character as fire testing precious metals. That is to say, praise will expose the kind of person that you really are. There are basically three things that you can do with praise. The first option is to open wide and drink it all in. This is a dangerous path because it is likely to go to your head. It could inflate your understanding of yourself to the point that you become arrogant and unbearable to live with. The second option is to do everything you can to deny the plaudits and suggest that they have got it all wrong. This might sound like a humble approach but it could easily come across as arrogant and rude. The best way to handle praise is to acknowledge i

Proverbs 27:15-16 'A quarrelsome wife is as annoying as constant dripping on a rainy day. Stopping her complaints is like trying to stop the wind or trying to hold something with greased hands.' I’m not going to defend for a moment the pure sexism of this proverb. There’s absolutely no need for it. The fact is that anyone can be quarrelsome, whatever their gender! The writer is convinced that the quarrelsome person is very hard to stop. He makes it sound as if quarrelling has become their way of life and no amount of challenging will change them. Clearly, quarrelling is something that has happened since the dawn of time and it’s not surprising that the apostle Paul was fully aware of the problem. He instructed Timothy that “a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people” (2 Timothy 2:24). The sad truth, of course, is that any of us can be quarrelsome. It may be that we’re not feeling well, or we are generally unhappy with the sta

Proverbs 27:14 'A loud and cheerful greeting early in the morning will be taken as a curse!' This might sound a bit harsh but, if you’ve ever lived with someone who is irrepressibly loud and cheerful, you probably know what this verse is getting at. In life, it’s not so much what you say as how, when, where and why you say it. Basically, the writer is talking about people who are insensitive and, let’s be honest, we all know people like that. Let’s be a little more honest and admit that we’re also guilty of insensitivity too! In the previous chapter, the writer referred to someone who was completely insensitive and totally misread the situation. He saw them as serious liability. He wrote: “Just as damaging as a madman shooting a deadly weapon is someone who lies to a friend and then says: ‘I was only joking’” (Proverbs 26:18-19). Everything is wrong about this. He shouldn’t have been lying in the first place, and to try to pass it off as a joke just pours fuel on the fire. We all have something to learn f

Proverbs 27:12 A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. Prudence isn’t a word that we hear much about these days, but it’s a wonderful word. The prudent person not only discerns the right thing to do, but does it. They make good plans and anticipate the problems that might occur. Our society is incredibly safety conscious and that is obviously a good thing, although it can easily be taken to extremes. There was a well-publicised story of a headteacher who insisted that children playing conkers should wear goggles, and suggestions that candy floss on sticks should be banned for fear of people tripping up and impaling themselves! Happily, the Health and Safety Executive disagreed with both approaches. What we need is to live and make our plans carefully and sensibly. Jesus spoke about the importance of planning when he talked about the person who proposed to build a tower. He pointed out that it was important to estimate the cost of comp

Proverbs 27:9-10 The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense. Never abandon a friend—either yours or your father’s. The writer Samuel Johnson once wrote: “Life has no pleasure higher or nobler than that of friendship.” I am sure we could all speak movingly of our friends. They are the people with whom we can laugh and cry, and be completely ourselves. It isn’t surprising that the writer of the Proverbs had much to say about friendships. He recognised how important they were in a happy and fulfilling life. We see many friendships in the Bible. Supremely we see the friendship between David and Jonathan. There was an immediate bond between them when they first met, and the friendship sustained them through desperately difficult times. Words are a crucial part of friendship and the writer of Proverbs observed how precious the counsel of a friend is. This doesn’t mean that a friend’s words are necessarily easy to hear. They may be deeply painful but, because they are motivated by love and

Mark 7:14-15 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.” The Pharisees had got really worked up by the fact that the disciples were not washing their hands properly before eating. Elaborate rules had been developed over the years and the Pharisees were meticulous in their adherence to them. They were sure that in order to be acceptable to God they needed to keep these rules, but Jesus turned their thinking upside down. He pointed out that just because you had really clean hands and followed endless religious rules it did nothing to change the person that you were. If you were seething with bitterness and anger, no amount of washing or other clever rituals were going to help. Jesus wanted to get to the heart of the matter. I honestly haven’t spent much of my life thinking about my heart. However, six years ago that all changed. I had cellulitis and, when

Mark 6:37 Jesus said, “You feed them.” “With what?” they asked. “We’d have to work for months to earn enough moneyto buy food for all these people!” The feeding of the 5,000 was a spectacular miracle, but Jesus didn’t rush into performing it. First of all, he challenged the disciples with a blunt command: “You feed them.” Just imagine what it would have been like to have been one of the disciples! Suddenly they have got to come up with an answer. They started thinking through the implications and quickly calculated that they would need to work for a long time to earn enough to feed such a huge crowd. They were firmly convinced that Jesus’ challenge was impossible. The problem was that they were thinking in purely human terms. Jesus was trying to help them to think beyond the normal limitations of life. Their response was entirely reasonable, but it didn’t take account of God. It left no room for miracles. As disciples of Jesus, they needed to stop thinking in purely practical terms and start seeing things fro