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Portion 66

Golden Text: Exodus 39-40
Readings for the week:

Day 1: Exodus 39

Day 2: Exodus 40

Day 3: Joshua 1:10-18

Day 4: Joshua 24

Day 5: Acts 4:1-22

Day 6: 1 Peter 4

I- Doing what needs to be done.

The phrase “as God had commanded” speaks of doing exactly what God wants us to do. Every command from Him merits obedience. Because what does it mean to be obedient? “To recognize that God is eternal and perfect, that He knows everything and that everything He does is always and will always be for good.”

However, it is not wrong to do more than God asks, if it is as a self-help to achieve obedience and consecration. The problem with this would be when the person who demands more of himself considers that this is the only and correct way for everyone and that this excess is what produces good, emphasizing trying to impose or demand from others his own demands. With this, what would be good for him becomes a stumbling block for him and others, in addition to revealing his lack of love for God and neighbor.

II- Freedom to show true human nature.

These chapters also make us reflect on the fact that many things that God commands contain details for their fulfillment that will be left to human discretion and decision. Although there are other commandments in which he gives details for their fulfillment. Why this parallelism? As in a song, music stimulates emotions and gives a guide to meaning but leaves the message of it free to the human imagination, while the lyrics define exactly what the song is about. God gives general commandments in which man can express his personality, character, and inner commitment; while on the other hand he gives exact details that cannot be discarded so as not to take an uncertain course when it comes to obeying him.

Both types of commandments are a necessary gift for human well-being. For example, Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that before he met Christ he fulfilled the ten words (debarim) and the commandments (mitzvot) that were given in detail, but when he set out to do what was necessary to interpret and act sanely, his sin flourished, then, thanks to that he realized that he was a sinner who needed divine action in the depths of his being[1]. He realized that by pretending to please God he found a law of sin in his body that always led him to do what God did not please him.

III- Disobeying God is not an option.

Another reflection that we can make from these chapters is that there are demands of God that we may not find logical (which does not indicate that he does not have it, just that we have not made it to him), but that does not mean that we are free not to obey for the simple fact of not understanding. Faith is reasoned, but we must also reason that it is not good to disobey God.

Questions:

1.- What do you think is the best way to obey God?

2.- If a young man asks you what would be the most important characteristic you see in this portion, about a leader, which one would you choose?

3.- Why do you think the construction of the tabernacle ended with a sign on the head of the high priest?

4.- How can studying the tabernacle help enrich today’s ministry vision?

 

[1] Ro 7:7-24.

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