TUESDAY, 24 JANUARY 2023
TEXT:
Exodus 23:1-19
1.
You shall not spread a false report. You shall not joint hands with the wicked
to act as a malicious witness.
2.
You shall not follow a majority in wrongdoing; when you bear witness in a
lawsuit, you shall not side with the majority so as to pervert justice;
3.
nor shall you be partial to the poor in a lawsuit.
4.
When you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey going astray, you shall bring it
back.
5.
When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you
would hold back from setting it free, you must help to set it free.
6.
You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in their lawsuits.
7.
Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and those in the
right, for I will not acquit the guilty.
8.
You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the officials, and subverts the
cause of those who are in the right.
9.
You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you
were aliens in the land of Egypt.
10.
For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield;
11.
but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of
your people may eat; and what they leave the wild animals may eat. You shall do
the same with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.
12.
Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that
your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your homeborn slave and the
resident alien may be refreshed.
13.
Be attentive to all that I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other
gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.
14.
Three times in the year you shall hold a festival for me.
15.
You shall observe the festival of unleavened bread; as I commanded you, you eat
unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for
in it you came out of Egypt. No one shall appear before me empty-handed.
16.
You shall observe the festival of harvest, of the first fruits of your labor,
of what you sow in the field. You shall observe the festival of ingathering at
the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor.
17.
Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God.
18.
You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let
the fat of my festival remain until the morning.
19.
The choicest of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house
of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
(New Revised Standard Version Holy
Bible)
TOPIC: HONOUR GOD WITH
YOUR SUBSTANCE
Among
many other things, the Israelites were instructed to hold special celebrations
three times annually during which none of them should appear before God
empty-handed. They were directed to honor God with the blessings of their
substance.
In
this period of grace, this should not be limited to just three times a year. 2
Corinthians 9:11 says: “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be
generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in
thanksgiving to God.” We can never outdo God in generosity.
QUESTION:
How generous are you in honoring God with your substance?
PRAYER:
Grant me the grace to be generous, oh God, in honoring You, in Jesus name,
Amen.
Remain
Blessed
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