Reading your Bible for today May 31

May 31: Exodus 31:12-17

Key Verse: Exodus 31:15

Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.

Devotion:
Can you imagine how popular it would be to be in church if they still enforced this rule! People would be scrambling over each other to get through the doors just in case someone thought they were not being “holy enough!” But even this section of text shows why God wanted us to remember the Sabbath over and above any other day. It is not for the fact people would die if they did not. It was the fact that people were showing God and others they had a covenant between them and God.

If you are really serious about something, then you may well do something like swear an oath to someone about how serious you were. Maybe you would say something like “I'll give you a hundred pounds (dollars/whatever) if I don't keep it up...” And maybe you would even be willing to carry out that oath to show people just how serious you are. But it would not be worth anything unless you were serious about it. Unless you wanted to keep to the promise over and above other things, it would lose its meaning.

God simply wants us to show we want to keep our oath with Him over and above others. He wants us to recognise He alone is our God, He alone is our creator and He alone is our Saviour. If we are going to be serious about our relationship with Him, then we should be serious about the way we carry on with our lives.

We can be thankful Jesus showed us a new relationship. A much more personal relationship which we can manage. A relationship He started and has given to us to keep. A relationship which does not depend on us keeping the myriad of laws which were laid down to the Jews, but one that encourages us to follow His law. If you were in a relationship with someone and they decided they wanted to be unfaithful to you, how would you feel?

Points to Ponder:
Are you faithful in your relationships with friends?

How good are you at remembering who should be first in your life?