Empty handed

DEVOTION

EXODUS

EMPTY HANDED

Ex 23:15-19

15 "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt. "No one is to appear before me empty-handed. 16 "Celebrate the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field. "Celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field. 17 "Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD. 18 "Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast. "The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning. 19 "Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. "Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.

NIV

Well our scholars all want to focus on the three celebrations and in looking forward these three have been identified as the Feast of Passover, the Feast of Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles. It does seem odd that the people were only to have three celebrations or feasts each year. Three special gatherings of the men to bring offerings to the LORD. The idea is to have a special time of remembrance for the action of God on behalf of the people. One when he brought them out of Egypt, one when they sowed the seeds and one when they harvested the crops. All of these are through the provision of God. We do have difficulty understanding the titles given to these feasts and what their supposed purpose is according to the connection made to commands about feasts in other scriptures. But the feasts themselves are nothing more than times for the people to remember what God has done for them. Each man must appear before the LORD during these feasts and he must not appear empty handed. First we should make note that as God brought them out of Egypt, he has brought us out of darkness, slaves to sin. As he provided them with seed to plant their fields, he has provided us with our work, our way of planting. As he provided their harvest, he has provided ours. We also plant the word of God among the field of this world and it is he who provides the harvest of souls for his kingdom, although we are supposed to gather them. If there is any parallel between the feasts of tabernacles, which was to remind them of their forty years living in tents, we are only living in temporary tents as well. But the lesson is about not appearing before the LORD empty handed. They were to bring a sacrifice, all of them, not a single one men could come before him without a sacrifice. How can we do that? Is this our tithe? If so than we should be tithing each and every Sunday at church, but many of us do not get paid weekly, so how can we appear at church empty handed? There is something we can bring each and everyday we appear before the LORD.

Rom 12:1-2

12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.

NIV

This is something we should not do three times a year, or in fact just once a week as we appear in church, but this is our life each and every day. This is our remembrance of what God has done for us. This is our act of worship because we have been redeemed, we have been covered by the blood of Jesus. This is our way of life. God showed his mercy on us, instead of giving us our due punishment, he paid that price himself, so that we can be freed from the bondage of sin, and the ramifications of that sin, his judgement and wrath. How could we ever appear before him each day without offering ourselves to him? How could we say we worship you O LORD, but we keep ourselves for ourselves? How could we tell him we reserve the right to do whatever we want to do? That truly would be empty handed.