After God provides the guidance of the 10 Commandments, He gives additional rules for helping the Israelites prosper as a society. They are to be set apart from the other societies around them. Though there are many laws we are no longer required to follow, if we look to the heart of the wisdom in God's laws, it can guide us for today.

Wanting to learn more about our biblical parenting study? Find out all about Entrusted with a Child's Heart here: www.entrustedminstries.com/studies

To ensure you have a biblical perspective on prodigal children, listen the latest episode of the AGAIN podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-again-podcast-on-biblical-motherhood/id1700555502?i=1000748358753

Today's Reading: Exodus 21-24

Scripture Referenced or Read:

Exodus 23:1-3, 10-12, 20-33

Exodus 21:15,17

Exodus 24:1, 8-9

This is the Dwelling Place

from Entrusted Ministries.

2

I'm Stephanie Hicock.

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Today we're looking at

Exodus 21 through 24.

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Yesterday.

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God bless the people with the 10

Commandments, and today he's going

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to continue to provide laws that

will bless them as a group of people.

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This is for their social

good and their moral good.

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A lot of this can be summarized as

if you've sinned, make it right, and

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often restitution is giving back more

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If you read these chapters already.

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There was probably a lot that made your

ears perk up, and I can just imagine,

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if God had a PR rep he would probably

come to him and be like, okay, God,

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I know what you're trying to say, but

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I think they're just really

gonna misconstrue this one.

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And God confidently being

unwavering in his character.

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Whenever we come to verses that are just

hard to comprehend when we say, God,

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why didn't you just say slavery is wrong?

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Why provide rules about how it can

be done kindly when you could have

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just said you shall not have slaves.

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But slavery was a very

common practice at that time.

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So God saying the slave has

rights was showing his kindness.

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Also, this is not chattel

slavery like we see today.

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it was more like indentured servitude.

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If you were struggling with poverty, you

could become a servants to someone, but

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you weren't doing it for life really.

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God didn't want anyone to

do this beyond six years.

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It was an opportunity for you to

be cared for and provided for.

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The principle of having stewardship and

taking care of our blessings because

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we receive them from the hand of God.

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Is a key idea in this section of

scripture, and that's when we can

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definitely pass on to our kids,

even if they don't own any oxen

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and even to ourselves, Are we caring well

for the blessings the Lord has given us?

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as I think about our world today.

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Chapter 23 really stands out to me.

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Verse one begins.

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You shall not spread a false report.

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You shall not join hands with a

wicked man to be a malicious witness.

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You shall not fall in

with the many to do evil.

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You shall not bear witness

in a lawsuit siding with the

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many as to pervert justice.

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Nor shall you be partial to

a poor man in his lawsuit.

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Even when an opinion is popular, you shall

not fall in with the many to do evil.

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We are to represent God's

character, his justice, his mercy,

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and his truth.

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And I'm concerned with social

media algorithms that continually

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bring before us stories that will

cement the way we already think.

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If you lean one way, they

continue to bring you evidence

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That solidifies that perspective.

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If you think the other

way, they do the same.

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and I'm concerned our society is

becoming irreversibly divided.

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Because people are seeing more information

than they've ever seen before and reading

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more things, it's becoming more difficult

to change someone's perspective, and

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the requirement to release information

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is minimal

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when someone states something, It

might just be even on their own

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Facebook post, people often take

it as truth without questioning

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it, and scripture is cautioning us.

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Do not spread a false report.

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Don't join hands with a wicked

man to be a malicious witness.

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We're not to pervert justice and we

shouldn't even be partial to a poor man.

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So even if you think, well, clearly

this person deserves compassion

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because of their situation.

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Well actually justice is

still important, God's saying.

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May that be a caution to all of us that

we would question what we read, that we

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would seek to emulate God's character

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rather than giving in to the rises of

emotion that we feel when we read stories

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wanting to read more and more of the

same to vindicate what we already feel.

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In verse 10, God describes.

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The Sabbath, rest for the land.

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For six years, you shall sow your

land and gather in its yield, but

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the seventh year, you shall let it

rest in life fallow that the poor

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of your people may eat and what they

leave the beast of the field may eat.

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You shall do likewise with your

vineyard and with your olive orchard.

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Six days you shall do your work, but

on the seventh day you shall rest.

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That your ox and your donkey may

have rest and the son of your servant

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woman and the alien may be refreshed.

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God was thinking about the benefit

of everyone with the Sabbath, though

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interestingly, the Sabbath is the

only one of the 10 commandments

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that does not carry over into the

New Testament, and we're actually

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told that we don't have to obey it.

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Now, that doesn't mean that you

can't, or that God's original

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blessings for Sabbath don't apply.

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But what it means is that Jesus actually

purchased a banner of rest over our

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souls, that because we're not striving

through the law anymore, our whole

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lives really should have a depth of peace

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pausing to honor God one day.

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A week is still a really great practice

of humility and faith in God's provision,

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and there is a ton of research that says

it blesses our health But we see, God

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describes the blessing of being refreshed

here and giving a break for others.

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Further in this chapter, God

describes how he's going to help

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his people enter the Promised land.

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In verse 20, behold.

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I send an angel before you to guard

you on the way and to bring you

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to the place that I have prepared.

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Pay careful attention to

him and obey his voice.

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Do not rebel against him for he will

not pardon your transgression for my

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name is in him, but if you carefully

obey his voice and do all that I say,

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then I will be an enemy to your enemies

and an adversary to your adversaries.

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When my angel goes before you and brings

you to the Amorites and the Hittites and

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the parasites and the Canaanites, the

Hivites and the Debus, and I blot them

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out, you shall not bow down to their

gods nor serve them, nor do as they do,

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but you shall utterly overthrow them.

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And break their pillars in pieces.

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You shall serve the Lord your God

and he will bless your bread and

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your water, and I will take your

sickness away from among you.

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None shall miscarry or

be barren in your land.

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I will fulfill the number of your days.

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I will send my terror before you and

will throw into confusion all the

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people against whom you shall come.

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And I will make all your

enemies turn their backs to you.

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And I will send hornets before you, which

shall drive out the HIEs, the Canaanites,

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and the Hittites from before you.

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I will not drive them out

before you in one year.

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Lest the land become desolate and

the wild beast multiply against you

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little by little, I will drive them

out from before you until you have

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increased and possessed the land.

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And I will set your border from the Red

Sea to the sea of the Philistines and

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from the wilderness to the Euphrates,

for I will give the inhabitants of

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the land into your hand, and you

shall drive them out before you.

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You shall make no covenant

with them and their gods.

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They shall not dwell on your land,

lest they make you sin against me.

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But if you serve their gods, it

will surely be a snare to you.

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We could ask the question, who is this

angel that God's gonna send to them?

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But Deuteronomy is gonna tell us

that it's the angel of the Lord.

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So we do believe that it's Jesus

that he will be going before

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them to take them into the land.

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When I read about how God is going to

have them take over the promised land

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It just is a reminder, I think, to be

careful about how we expand our territory.

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When I first got married, I moved into

my husband's one bedroom tiny condo.

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We put it up for sale as soon

as I got pregnant, but it took

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the entire pregnancy to sell it.

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At that point, I was nine months pregnant

and my cousins graciously allowed me

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to live in their beautiful basement.

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We brought our baby home there.

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and in a couple months God provided

a wonderful four bedroom home for us.

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And it didn't seem like much time

passed before I was pregnant with

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another boy, and then immediately

after that, another boy.

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And I remember thinking as I was

chasing these three busy little

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boys Lord, my territory expanded too

quickly just as I was thinking about

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how I couldn't keep all of the closets

organized while keeping them alive.

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There's wisdom in growing slow, whether

it's slowly raising Our children

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and really making sure that we're

taking care to help them obey and

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honor us, and to develop character,

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Speaking of obedience.

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In 2115 whoever strikes his father

or his mother shall be put to death.

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Whoever curses his father or his

mother shall be put to death.

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It seems incredibly harsh, but if

children learn to obey their parents and

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learn authority in their home, then as

they get out into the world, they know

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how to obey in other spheres of life.

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Paul Trip says there is no greater issue

in the heart of a child than authority,

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and I would imagine that if this

happened just once, as terrible as

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this would be, it would be a warning

to the entire rest of the population.

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You better be careful.

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You better honor your parents.

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This is not a guideline for us

today, but let's be careful that

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we're still making sure that God's

desire for our children to obey and

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honor us is not left by the wayside.

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If you would like more information

about how to do that, our

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biblical parenting study is unlike

any resource I've ever seen.

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If you're familiar with Paul Tripp,

it's like his resources only more

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practical because they're coming from

a mom who sat on the kitchen floor

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teaching and training her kids.

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And speaking of kiddos that aren't

following in the way that they should go,

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we just released an episode on Prodigals

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on our again podcast.

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In chapter 24, God is actually going

to allow Aaron and his sons, NAB

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and Abba, who and the 70 elders and

Moses to come up and worship him.

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They don't get to go all the way up,

but they do get to come on the mountain,

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but only Moses gets to come near.

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And scripture tells us that

they actually got to behold God.

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And they saw the God of Israel

there was under his feet as it

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were, a pavement of sapphire stone,

like the very heaven of clearness.

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They beheld God and ate and drank.

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It seems that they're beholding

just a glimpse of him, or

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maybe even only of his feet,

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but they certainly do get to

experience the glory of the

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Lord on an incredible level.

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And just as Moses got to come near,

that invitation is for us as well.

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Let's pray.

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Heavenly Father, we're reminded that

you are a holy God, that your ways

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are higher than our ways and your

thoughts higher than our thoughts.

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we thank you for so much clarity in

your word about how to make it right.

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When we go off course.

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We see again that obedience and honor is

truly important to you, and we pray that

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you would help us to raise our children

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to honor us because we know we're setting

them up to honor you and their hearts.

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Help us to be good stewards

and to train our kids

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to see all of their

blessings is from your hand.

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Help us to walk in truth and

not to agree with opinions

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just because they're popular.

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But to get to the heart of the matter.

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We thank you for the invitation to

draw on your to you, and we pray

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That we would respond in love and worship.

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its in your name we pray, Jesus.

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amen.