“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” Isaiah 1:18
Free From Guilt
Do you ever dream of being famous—a famous actor or athlete, perhaps? People would admire you and ask for your autograph. You could make their day by allowing them to take a selfie with you. As exciting as it might seem to be famous, there are downsides. One is that so many people see your sins. You can probably think of a number of people whose fame made their sins known.
You may not be famous, but your sins are known by at least two important people—you and God. You know the words you have allowed to pass over your lips. You know the thoughts you have allowed to pass through your mind. They hound and haunt you and make you miserable. You desperately wish you could make the guilt disappear.
Thank God that there is someone who can make your guilt disappear because he has made your sin disappear. He is your loving heavenly Father. Yes, he has seen your sins. The prophet Isaiah says that your sins are as bright as scarlet to the Lord. But he loves you. And, because he loves you, he has covered your sins. The bright white, perfect life of Jesus covers your sins like a fresh snowfall covers mud and dirt.
So, spend this day free from guilt. Spend this day thanking and praising God who has forgiven your sins.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, although you have seen my many sins, I know you have covered those sins with the perfect life of your Son, Jesus Christ. Although I can never thank you enough for this great gift, may my life this day show you how grateful I am. Amen.
Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again. Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, O captive Daughter of Jerusalem. Isaiah 52:1-2
Keep Your Head Up
It’s not easy, is it? It’s not easy living in such a sin-filled world. All around we see theft and murder and cruelty. It’s enough to make a person hang his head in sadness and frustration. But hanging your head won’t help. Because then you’ll only be looking at yourself. And when you look at yourself, you also see cruelty, arrogance, and bitterness. You see all the ways you have failed God and failed the ones you love.
To you God says, “Awake, awake…Put on your garments of splendor… Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned…Free yourself from the chains on your neck.” How can God say this? The answer is simple—Jesus. Jesus destroyed sin and death when he rose from the grave. There is no reason for us to live lives of doom and defeat. We live a victorious life! We are clothed in Jesus’ perfection. The chains of sin have been thrown aside.
So, even though the world looks awful, our lives are awesome. And, one day when God delivers us to heaven, we will experience a world that matches what we now see only by faith. So, keep your head up! Live like the victor Jesus has made you!
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, thank you that for delivering me from my sin. Keep me from becoming despondent because of the things I see in the world around me. Instead, lift my eyes to see the cross you hung on, the tomb you left empty, and the throne from which you now rule. This day, keep my head up! Amen.
Since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 1 Thessalonians 5:8-10
Our Safe Place
Have you ever heard of “doomsday preppers?” They are people who prepare for a catastrophic event, or the collapse of civilization by storing food and other supplies in a safe place just in case. It’s good to be prepared.
Judgement day, the day when Jesus will return, is sometimes referred to as doomsday. It will be a dreadful day for those who are unprepared. However, for those who are prepared it’s not a day of doom and gloom. Being prepared makes all the difference, but we cannot prepare ourselves for that day by stockpiling the right supplies. None of the earthly things we collect will save us on that day. None of the places or possessions where we seek comfort and safety in this life will shield us. So, how does one prepare?
Everyone who trusts in Jesus is already prepared. Jesus is our safe place. In him, we are sheltered from all that seeks to harm us spiritually. God has appointed a day of judgement, but in his incredible mercy he has not appointed us to suffer his wrath against sin. He appointed Jesus to suffer wrath for the sins of the world. Jesus was sent to suffer in our place and then to be victorious in our place by rising from the dead. Jesus supplies all we need. Through faith in him, we are spared from wrath and receive salvation.
Jesus is our safe place, and not just on the last day, but every day. Today you can find refuge in him and his salvation. You need not fear when the day will come. As long as you trust in him, Jesus is your safe place. He died for all, so that you may live eternally and safely with him. The one who is truly prepared is the one who finds refuge in Jesus, now and always.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, may I daily seek refuge so that I may be kept safe until the day you return. Amen.
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20 Look, I will send an angel before you to guard you on your way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 Pay attention to him. Listen to his voice. Do not provoke him, because he will not pardon your disobedience, for my Name is in him. 22 But if you carefully listen to his voice and carry out all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
23 Yes, my Angel shall go ahead of you and bring you into the territory of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Then I will cut them off. 24 You shall not bow down to their gods. Do not serve them or follow their practices, but you must completely overthrow them and demolish their sacred memorial stones. 25 You shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from your midst. 26 No one will miscarry or be childless [1] in your land. I will grant you the full number of your days.
27 I will send my terror before you, and I will spread confusion among all the people to whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs and flee from you. 28 I will send the hornet ahead of you. It will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from your presence. 29 I will not drive them out from before you in a single year, or the land would become desolate, and the wild animals would become too numerous for you. 30 As you advance, I will drive them out little by little, until you have grown in number and taken possession of the land.
31 I will establish your border from the Red Sea [2] all the way to the Mediterranean Sea, [3] and from the Wilderness [4] to the River. [5] So I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you. 32 You shall not make a treaty [6] with them or with their gods. 33 They are not to dwell in your land, or they will make you sin against me, because if you serve their gods, this will surely be a trap for you.
The Covenant Is Ratified
Exodus 24
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, along with Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship me from a distance. 2 Only Moses is allowed to come near the Lord, but the others are not to come near, and the people are not to go up with him.”
3 Moses came and reported to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances. Then all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do.” 4 Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord.
He got up early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain. He set up twelve memorial stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 He sent young Israelite men, who offered whole burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings of cattle to the Lord. 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and he splashed half of the blood on the altar. 7 He took the Book of the Covenant and read it out loud to the people and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do. We will obey.”
8 Moses took the blood and splashed it on the people. He said, “Look, here is the blood of the covenant, which the Lord made with you by means of all these words.”
9 Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up. 10 They saw the God of Israel. Under his feet they saw what looked like a pavement of sapphire [7] as clear as the sky. 11 The Lord did not lay his hand on the dignitaries of the people of Israel. They gazed at God, and they ate and drank.
12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain. Wait there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commands that I have written, so that you can teach them.”
13 Moses set out with his assistant Joshua and went up onto the mountain of God. 14 He said to the elders, “Wait here for us, until we come back to you. Look, here are Aaron and Hur. They will be with you. Whoever is involved in a dispute can go to them.”
15 Moses went up onto the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The Glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered the mountain for six days. On the seventh day the Lord called to Moses out of the middle of the cloud. 17 The appearance of the Glory of the Lord looked like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18 Moses entered into the middle of the cloud and climbed up the mountain. Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Footnotes
Exodus 23:26 Or infertile
Exodus 23:31 The Hebrew Yam Suf (Sea of Reeds) here refers to the Gulf of Aqaba, also called the Gulf of Elat.
Exodus 23:31 Hebrew the Sea of the Philistines
Exodus 23:31 The Hebrew word midbar, usually translated wilderness, refers to arid and semi-arid regions where agriculture is not possible but herding is. The word midbar is wider than the English word desert and narrower than the English word wilderness, which includes forested areas. Here it refers to the arid wilderness south of Israel.
Exodus 23:31 That is, from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the Sinai Peninsula to the Euphrates River
Exodus 23:32 Literally cut a treaty. See Genesis 15 to see why Israelites referred to cutting a treaty.
Exodus 24:10 Or lapis lazuli. The Hebrew word is sappir (sapphire), but the stones used by Israel do not necessarily correspond to the present-day gems with the same name.
33 If a man uncovers a cistern, [1] or if a man digs a cistern and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, 34 the owner of the cistern shall pay for the loss in full. He shall give money to the owner of the animal, and the dead animal shall be his.
35 If one man’s ox injures his neighbor’s ox, so that it dies, they shall sell the live ox and divide the money they got for it, and they shall also divide the dead animal. 36 But if it was known that the ox was in the habit of goring in the past, and its owner has not kept it confined, he must pay ox for ox, and the dead animal will be his.
Laws About Property
Exodus 22
1 If a man steals an ox or a sheep and butchers it or sells it, he shall pay five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. [2]
2 If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck so that he dies, the one who kills him shall not be guilty of bloodshed. 3 But if this takes place after sunrise, the one who kills him shall be guilty of bloodshed.
A thief shall make restitution. If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. 4 If the stolen animal found in his possession is alive, whether it is an ox, donkey, or sheep, he shall repay double.
5 If a man is grazing livestock in a field or a vineyard, and he lets his animals run loose and they graze in another man’s field, ⎣he shall make restitution from his own field on the basis of the produce that was eaten, [3] but if they have grazed over the whole field,⎦ he shall make restitution from the best of his own field and from the best of his own vineyard. [4]
6 If a fire gets out of control and spreads through the thorn bushes so that someone else’s shocks of grain, standing grain, or grain field are consumed, the one who lit the fire must certainly make restitution.
7 If a man entrusts money or other items to his neighbor for safekeeping, and they are stolen out of that man’s house, if the thief is found, he shall repay double. 8 If the thief is not found, then the owner of the house shall appear before the judges [5] to find out whether he has laid his hands on his neighbor’s goods. 9 In every such offense, whether it involves an ox, a donkey, a sheep, clothing, or any other kind of lost property about which someone claims, “This is mine,” the claims of both parties shall be presented before the judges. Whichever party the judges find guilty shall repay double to his neighbor.
10 If a man entrusts a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any animal to his neighbor for safekeeping, and it dies or is injured or is driven off, and no one sees what happened, 11 to settle the matter between them, the man who received the property must make an oath to the Lord that he has not laid his hands on his neighbor’s goods. Its owner must accept the oath, and the man who received the property shall not be required to make restitution. 12 But if, in fact, it was stolen while in his custody, he shall make restitution to its owner. 13 If it was torn in pieces by animals, let him bring it for evidence. He is not required to make good that which was torn.
14 If a man borrows anything from his neighbor, and it is injured or dies while its owner is not with it, the borrower must certainly make restitution. 15 If its owner is with it, the borrower will not be required to make restitution. If it was rented, the rent covers the loss.
Laws About Morals in Society
16 If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged in marriage and lies down with her, he must pay a bride price for her to be his wife. 17 If her father flatly refuses to give her to him, the offender still must weigh out silver equivalent to the bride price for virgins.
18 You shall not allow a sorceress [6] to live.
19 Whoever lies down with an animal shall certainly be put to death.
20 Whoever sacrifices to any god, except to the Lord alone, shall be devoted to destruction.
21 You shall not wrong a resident alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
22 You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child. 23 If you take advantage of them in any way, and they make even the faintest cry to me, I will surely hear their cry, 24 and my anger will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives will be widows, and your children fatherless.
25 If you lend money to anyone among my people who is poor, you must not act like a moneylender. You must not charge him interest. 26 If you take your neighbor’s outer garment as collateral, you must restore it to him before the sun goes down, 27 for his garment is the only cover he has for his skin. What would he sleep in? Be assured that when he cries to me, I will hear, for I am gracious.
28 You shall not malign the judges, [7] nor curse a ruler of your people.
29 You shall not delay bringing offerings from your abundant harvest and from your overflowing wine vats.
You shall present the firstborn of your sons to me. 30 You shall do the same with your cattle and with your sheep. For seven days a newborn animal shall be with its mother. Then on the eighth day you shall present it to me.
31 You are to be men set apart as holy for me. So you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by wild animals. You shall cast it to the dogs.
Exodus 23
1 You shall not spread a false report. Do not join hands with the wicked to be a malicious witness.
2 You shall not follow a crowd to do evil. Do not go along with the crowd by testifying in court to pervert justice.
3 You shall not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit.
4 If you come upon your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you certainly must bring it back to him again. 5 If you see that the donkey of someone who hates you has fallen down under its load, do not pass him by. You certainly must help him with it.
6 You shall not deny justice to the poor people among you in their lawsuits.
7 Keep your distance from a false charge. Do not put those who are innocent and those who are righteous to death, for I will not acquit [8] the wicked.
8 You shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and distorts the words of the righteous.
9 You shall not oppress a resident alien, for you know how it feels to be an alien, because you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
Laws About Sabbaths
10 For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, 11 but during the seventh year you are to let it rest and lie fallow, so that the needy among your people may eat, and the animals in the fields can eat what they leave. You are to deal with your vineyard and with your olive grove in the same way.
12 Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey will have rest, and so that the son of your female servant and the resident alien will be refreshed.
13 Be careful to do all the things that I have said to you. Do not mention the name of other gods. Do not let their names come out of your mouth.
Laws About Festivals
14 Three times a year you shall observe pilgrimage festivals for me:
15 You shall observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. [9] For seven days you shall eat bread without yeast, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib (for during that month you came out from Egypt). No one is to appear before me empty-handed.
16 Next observe the Festival of Reaping [10] by presenting the first ripe produce of your labors, which you sow in the field.
Finally, observe the Festival of Ingathering, [11] at the end of the year, when you pick the fruits of your labors from the fields. 17 Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord God.
18 You shall not offer any bread made with yeast together with the blood of my sacrifices. None of the fat from my festival shall remain until morning. 19 The very first produce from your soil you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.
You shall not boil a baby goat in its mother’s milk.
Footnotes
Exodus 21:33 Or pit
Exodus 22:1 In chapter 22, English verse 1 is equal to Hebrew verse 21:37. English verses 2-31 are equal to Hebrew verses 1-30.
Exodus 22:5 This seems to mean that if only part of the other field was eaten, the quality of the crops that remained in that field would be used to determine the quality of the repayment, but if the whole field was eaten, the guilty party had to repay the loss with the best of his own field.
Exodus 22:5 The words in half-brackets are not in the Hebrew text but are in the Greek Old Testament. An omission from the Hebrew text may have occurred as the Hebrew copyist’s eye skipped from one occurrence of field to another.
Exodus 22:8 Or before God. The Hebrew word is elohim, which usually means God.
Exodus 22:18 Or witch
Exodus 22:28 Or blaspheme God. The Hebrew word is elohim, which usually means God, but see John 10:35.
Exodus 23:7 Or justify
Exodus 23:15 Also called Passover, referring to the events of its first day. This festival took place in early spring at the beginning of the grain harvest.
Exodus 23:16 Also called Pentecost or the Festival of Weeks. This took place in late spring at the end of the grain harvest.
Exodus 23:16 Also called the Festival of Shelters or Tabernacles. This took place in autumn, when the fruit was picked.
1 Now these are the ordinances which you are to set before them:
Laws About Servants
2 If you purchase a Hebrew servant, he is to serve for six years, but in the seventh he may go free without paying anything. 3 If he comes in by himself, he will go out by himself. If he is married when he comes in, then his wife will go out with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children will belong to her master, and the servant will go out by himself. 5 But if the servant formally declares, “I love my master, my wife, and my children. I do not want to go out free,” 6 then his master shall bring him to the judges. [1] His master shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and he shall bore through his ear with an awl. Then he shall serve him for the rest of his life.
7 If a man sells his daughter to be a female servant, she may not be sent out of the household as the male servants may be. 8 If she does not please her master who has married her, then he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has not kept his commitment to her. 9 If he marries her to his son, he must deal with her as he would deal with a daughter. 10 If he takes a second wife for himself, he must not diminish the food, the clothing, or the marital rights [2] of the first wife. 11 If he does not do these three things for her, she may go free without paying any money.
Laws About Injuries
12 Anyone who strikes a man so that he dies must certainly be put to death. 13 However, if this was not done intentionally but rather was an act of God, for that kind of case I will appoint a place among you to which that man can flee. 14 But if a man plots and kills his neighbor deliberately, you shall take him from my altar, so that he may be put to death.
15 Anyone who strikes his father or his mother must certainly be put to death.
16 If anyone kidnaps someone and sells him, or if the kidnapped person is found in his possession, the kidnapper must certainly be put to death.
17 Anyone who curses his father or his mother must certainly be put to death.
18 If men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and the victim does not die but is confined to bed— 19 if the victim gets up and can walk around outside with his staff, then the one who struck him shall not be punished, but he must pay for the victim’s lost work time while he is recuperating, until he is completely healed.
20 If a man strikes his male or his female servant with a club, [3] and the servant dies at his hand, he must certainly be punished. 21 However, if the servant gets up after a day or two, [4] the man shall not be punished, for the servant was his property.
22 If men are fighting and they injure a pregnant woman so that the child comes out, yet no harm follows, they must certainly be fined as much as the woman’s husband demands and the judges approve. 23 But if any harm follows, then you are to take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, and bruise for bruise.
26 If a man strikes his male or female servant’s eye and destroys it, he must let the servant go free as payment for the eye. 27 If he knocks out his male or female servant’s tooth, he must let the servant go free as payment for the tooth.
28 If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox must be stoned to death, and its flesh must not be eaten, but the owner of the ox will not be held responsible. 29 If the ox, however, had a habit of goring in the past, and its owner had been warned, but he did not keep it confined, and it then kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner shall also be put to death. 30 But if a redemption payment is imposed on the owner instead of the death penalty, he must pay whatever is imposed on him to save his life. 31 This is also the ruling that applies to him if the ox has gored someone’s son or daughter. 32 But if the ox gores a male servant or a female servant, thirty shekels of silver shall be given to the servant’s owner, and the ox is to be stoned to death.
Footnotes
Exodus 21:6 Or God. The Hebrew word is elohim, which usually means God, but see John 10:35.
Exodus 21:10 The meaning of the Hebrew word translated marital rights is uncertain.
17 But I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the teaching that you learned, and keep away from them. 18 For such people are not serving Christ our Lord but their own appetites. [1] By smooth talk and flattery, they seduce the hearts of the unsuspecting.
19 Your obedience has become known to everyone, so I am very joyful about you. But I want you to continue to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. 20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Greetings From Those With Paul
21 Timothy, my coworker, greets you, along with Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my relatives.
22 I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord.
23 Gaius, my host and the host of the whole church, greets you.
Erastus, the city treasurer, greets you, and Quartus, the brother. [2]
Doxology
25 Now to him who is able to strengthen you—
according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was veiled in silence for long ages past, 26 but now has been revealed through the prophetic Scriptures and made known to all the Gentiles, in keeping with the command of the eternal God, resulting in the obedience of faith—
27 to God, who alone is wise, be glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Footnotes
Romans 16:18 Literally stomach
Romans 16:23 Some witnesses to the text add verse 24: May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you. Other witnesses add these words after verse 27.
1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church in Cenchrea. 2 Welcome her in the Lord in a manner that is worthy of saints, and assist her in whatever way she may need your help, for she has certainly been a helper for many people, including me.
3 Greet Prisca [1] and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who risked their necks for my life. I am not the only one who is thankful to them. All the churches of the Gentiles are as well.
5 Greet also the church that meets at their house.
Greet my dear friend Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.
6 Greet Mary, who worked very hard for you.
7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, [2] my relatives and fellow prisoners, who are highly regarded by the apostles. They were in Christ before I was.
8 Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord.
9 Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys.
10 Greet Apelles, who was tested and approved in Christ.
Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.
11 Greet Herodion, my relative.
Greet those from the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord.
12 Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, who worked hard in the Lord.
Greet my dear friend Persis, who has worked very hard for the Lord.
13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who was a mother to me too.
14 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them.
15 Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.
16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.
Footnotes
Romans 16:3 She is called Priscilla in Acts 18:2.
Romans 16:7 Or Junias, a masculine name. Some ancient interpreters considered Andronicus and Junia to be husband and wife.
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