Letting light shine

 Welcome to the Daily Bible Chapter. My name is James Leroy Wilson and I invite you to join me as we discover new insights and new perspectives from a very old book.

Exodus 34

I'm reading Young's Literal Translation (YLT) and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

This is the self-description of The LORD:

“The LORD, the LORD,

a God merciful and gracious,

slow to anger,

and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation

forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,

yet by no means clearing the guilty,

but visiting the iniquity of the parents

upon the children

and the children’s children,

to the third and the fourth generation.”

That seems a little confusing, doesn't it? Iniquity is forgiven, but visited on the children for generations? I wonder if it means that the iniquitous parents can be forgiven, but the earthly consequences of destructive actions will nevertheless run their course. 

An example: perhaps the children expected an inheritance, but the parents gambled their fortune away. The parents may be forgiven, but that doesn't mean the children will get the fortune; it no longer exists. It might take a while for prosperity to be restored in that family.

The LORD then makes a strong statement about idolatry, which I think is the running theme since Abraham. Idolatry is slavish devotion to external objects and leaders, the material world. That impulse, the Ham or base nature within us, must instead be enslaved to Shem, or our higher nature. Driving out the descendants of Ham in the Promised Land mirrors subduing our base impulses in ourselves.

Verses 18-25 is a reiteration of commands from previous chapters about the Sabbath and animal sacrifices. Verse 26 has the weird statement, "You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk."

The full verse says, 

"The best of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk."

The second sentence seems unrelated to the first. One theory suggests the second sentence is a figure of speech. The point is to offer the first fruits of this year, and do not offer any surplus from the previous year. 

Moses again spends 40 days on Mount Sinai without eating or drinking. When he came down, his face was glowing.

The lesson from that might be: we are nourished and quenched by the light of God.

Let there be light. 

James Leroy Wilson writes Daily Miracles, The Daily Bible Chapter, JL Cells, and The MVP Chase. Thanks for your subscriptions and support!

(Photo credit: TyshkunVictor)