Recap of Thursday's meeting at the Starbucks in Tom Thumb: (Laura will recap Tuesday in the comment section of this post)
We started off the meeting with a quick quiz: How many of the 10 commandments can we name without peeking? And what does "Manna" mean? Susan guessed correctly! (What is it?)
Highlights:
God sometimes takes us in a "roundabout" way in order to achieve His purposes in our lives. When he directed the Israelites out of Egypt to Canaan, He didn't take them the "direct route". (See Exodus 13:18) He did this for their own protection and to demonstrate His faithfulness, love and power.
We talked a lot about "the law" and the ten commandments and the very specific direction God gave through these laws. (See Exodus 20:20) The law was given to the people in order to expose their sin and to demonstrate God's holiness. It's a lot to take in and we agreed that we are still processing some of it!
We talked about some of the great personalities of Genesis and Exodus (Sarah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses) and how we can relate to some of the "stretching" and "faith-building" they must have experienced!
LOVE the great insights you all shared! Bring your questions again in two weeks.
Tiffany
PS- For those of you going on the retreat this weekend, we will plan to sit together at lunch on Saturday !
4 comments:
Thanks, for the recap! Missed y'all today!
so excited for the weekend!! Look forward to lunch. I was able to catch a little of each group this week and I just have to say how thankful I am to know so many neat women who love learning about Gods love for His people....even us. Ive already grown so much and my hunger for the word gets deeper everyday! Thank you to those who are in this with me, you encourage me by just being there, and sharing. Thank you Tiffany for starting this sweet "season of growing" Big Hugs and lets press on girls! :)
Tuesday's Recap:
We discussed who we related to the most, either Abraham, Joseph or Moses. Many of us related to Moses due to his feelings of inadequacy to fulfill God's calling. But, God enabled him to carry out his plans through Aaron and gave him the tools to do so. Just like he does for us today!
We also spoke about how God continued to harden Pharaoh's heart in order for his glory to be shown through miracles after miracles. Which came to mind, Ezekiel 36:26 "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."
We were also encouraged by Exodus 20:5 where it speaks about how those who love Him and obey His commands He will "lavish unfailing love for a THOUSAND generations." Wow! That's incredible!
It was great to meet once again and have new faces as well! Even if you get behind on your reading, come anyhow! We are all encouraged by each other's presence, words of wisdom and encouraging words. Blessings, Laura
Here's my homework regarding the verse about a master who beats his slave (Ex 21:20).
I found it difficult to see God's character in that verse. A beating that takes 2 days to recover from is pretty severe! The best explanation I found is that this verse and the laws around it (the verses around it) regulate capital punishment. It was meant to be used as a way for judges to determine restitution in these cases. The problem was the Jews interpreted this as moral law (eye for an eye, etc.) This is why Jesus ultimately preached the "you have heard..., but I say..." message.
This makes a lot more sense to me. I was always confused about how the 10 Commandments were set apart from the rest of the law, though it is considered part of the law. It appears this commentary would suggest that the Commandments encompass the moral law. The rest of it was meant to be used to judge cases like we do in our secular courts today.
I would be interested to see what others think of this interpretation.
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